Grupo Fantasma brings life to art museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, July 22, 2009
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
The setting probably wasn't all that typical for Grupo Fantasma. After all, the Austin-based Latin group that throws in a touch of the funk and a driving beat isn't used to playing art museums.
But had the man and woman inhabiting Renoir's "Le Bal a Bougival" resting inside the museum been outside in the courtyard, they too would have been dancing like a good chunk of the approximately 300 others attending the show.
Grupo Fantasma, making heir second consecutive summer appearance at the MFA, have a lot going on musically. Their basic sound is Latin-based rhythms of differing styles depending on the song.
Typically, vocalists Jose Galeano and Kino Rodriguez took leads or sometimes dueted together with Galeano smacking away on percussion. Guitarist Beta Martinez added steely guitar licks here and there. Congo player Matthew "Sweet Lou" Holmes checked in with very effective playing throughout and the three-piece horn section were on target time and time again. Sometimes all three punctuated the song. On the closing song of the regular set, Gimme Some, from the band's most recent disc, "Sonidos Gold," baritone sax player Josh Levy let loose giving the music a different flavor.
Grupo Fantasma, which was nominated for a Grammy this year in the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album, added a lot of edge to the music at times with a driving sound. A James Brown-styled funk bent also crept into the music occasionally as did one song in English.
This wasn't the case of a band searching for a style that would work because just about everything did. It took a little bit, but eventually they got a good solid chunk of the people dancing on the grass. A group like Grupo Fantasma will do that to you.
