The well known, 62-member vocal group directed by Timothy G. Ruff Welch, Los Cantantes del Lago, performs its spring offering next week with a unique jazz quartet, Sherele.
The band, led by the charismatic French clarinet and accordion player, Nathalie Braux, brings music from an Eastern European Yiddish genre—Klezmer—that was then molded by exiles in the jazz quarters of the United States and went on to find an unlikely home in Jalisco, where its sound is described as Latin-polka-jazz-tropical fusion.
“I don’t know anyone else who’s crazy enough to put this concert together except me,” Welch quipped, explaining why he chose Musical Madness as the title of the concert. “But people at the lake love jazz and they’ll probably be dancing in the aisles, even though we’re playing in an auditorium.”
Los Cantantes will perform show and movie songs in their traditional style, Welch explained, “but then Sherele will come in improvising with the clarinet on top of us.
“The band will do four Klezmer classics alone—and the audience, especially older people, will recognize some of these—and Los Cantantes will likewise perform at times without Sherele. Los Cantantes begin with the Bugs Bunny theme song, just to show you how unusual things will be. It’s also unique because Nathalie will be moving to the States soon, so this is the last chance people here have to see her perform. It’s an unusual concert all around.”
Welch emphasized that people who are jazz lovers will not be disappointed.
“They play jazz with a particular ‘bent’ but they play jazz,” he said.
“Musical Madness,” Tuesday, March 13, 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 14, 4 p.m., Auditorio de la Ribera in Riberas. Tickets, 250 pesos, at Diane Pearl Colecciones, Mia’s Boutique, Auditorio de la Ribera and loscantantesdelago.com.