Red Taurus
Red Taurus - The Swing Jazz Group La Cremeria Theatre, Fringe Club March 26 With a spirited flourish of maracas and to the sound of seductive guitars, Red Taurus whisked its audience on a musical tour of sophisticated sounds that fused jazz, blues and Latin rhythms.
The group - which dubs the result of this musical mixture 'nouveau flamenco' - managed successfully to combine their own compositions, such as those of Singaporean guitarist Jason Ho, with others by John Williams, Julio Iglesias and even Sting.
It began with Dave Grusin's gently persistent Havana, a piece that evoked images of swaying down the Malecon, the city's waterfront promenade, and included guitar solos.
Casino also contained several guitar and drum solos with a clever beat that created a frisson of expectation.
Smiles From Bali seemed a slightly odd choice - given its geographic location compared with the rest of the compositions and the fact that Senen Antonio's voice was forced to compete with the drums and guitars. In any case, the lyrics conjured more the Balearic Islands than Bali.
Preferable was the slightly camp, pulsating Blue Latino which allowed the musicians to take the spotlight in an instrumental extravaganza.
John Williams' Cavatina was a welcome inclusion, and although slightly rushed, its haunting strains seemed to stir feelings of disquiet among the audience.
Perhaps they were remembering it as the theme to The Deerhunter, the tear-jerker about Vietnam starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.
Minutes later, the pace changed from languorous to lively as Acoustic Alchemy's Jamaica Heartbeat pulsed its reggae-influenced riffs.
For the most part, the evening seemed not to dwell on flamenco origins and instead offered the audience more the kind of music you might find in a slick bar off Madrid's Plaza Espana than one of the riverside bars lining the Guadalquivir in Old Seville.
Yet Red Taurus did not disappoint.
