The educational band Manguito brought a taste of Latin American culture to Riverdale School students yesterday, filling the auditorium with rhythmic, rich music from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.
The five-man band made their entrance by shuffling in line to the stage, and their music instantly filled the room with energy as the audience began clapping.
It was a very interactive program.
Band members clapped hands, the kids soon followed. When Rafael Alcala began playing notes on an electric piano, the students started snapping their fingers. And when Alex Alvear asked for six volunteers to help his group play a plena - a type of Puerto Rican music - nearly every child raised a hand. Ten ended up accompanying the band on stage.
"You've got to make it fun and engaging and not necessarily a formal lecture, but something that can spark the interest of the young kids," said Alvear, who is originally from Ecuador. "We're just giving a very moderate sampling of the many, many kinds of music you'll find in Latin America, in the Caribbean especially."
Alvear said Manguito is an educational offshoot of his band, Mango Blue. Playing with him yesterday were Alcala, who hails from Mexico, Ernesto Diaz, a percussionist from Colombia, Jesus Andujar of the Dominican Republic on drums, and Angel "Cononi" Wagner, also from the Dominican Republic, who played los timbales. Most of the musicians live in the Boston area.
They started off in Cuba by playing rumba, which Alvear called the "grandparent" of salsa.
At one point Alvear explained how a percussion instrument called a chekere is made from a particular type of gourd, and Diaz gave a little demonstration with the ancient African instrument.
After Cuba, the group and audience metaphorically "swam through the Caribbean" to Puerto Rico, where they played the bomba and plena genres.
Before playing a bomba dedicated to Thomas the Christian saint, Alvear instructed the crowd, "When you sing, you have to think of your voice as another drum, as another percussion instrument. You have to sing with a specific rhythm so it falls in place with all the other rhythms that are going on here."
Then, every time Alvear pointed his finger at the kids, they chanted "San Tomas."
The final stop of the journey was the Dominican Republic, where the kids were exposed to merengue, and learned about the two instruments Alvear said were "essential ingredients" for that music - la tambora and la guida.
Toward the end Alvear asked if anyone felt like dancing. Standing in front of their seats, the kids erupted in joyful dance moves. Some of their bopping and shaking harmonized with the music, while others displayed moves a la Michael Jackson, or even twirled "ring around the rosie."
The program was presented by the Riverdale PTO in conjunction with Young Audiences of Massachusetts. It was the final arts enrichment program of the year from the PTO, which previously put on visits by a cello soloist, Boston Ballet dancers, and a theatrical duo that performed a humorous take on Greek mythology.
The programs were supported by the Dedham Education Foundation, the Dedham Cultural Council, and others.
"It's got good rhythm patterns, a lot of instruments," third-grader Tony Kadelliu said of yesterday's music.
The 9-year-old, who plays the guitar, said of the instruments on stage he especially liked the bongo, "because it really sounds interesting. It's loud too."
Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
