Perla at TOCA
Perla
Batalla Back to Beautiful Music Here and Now
Music lovers are re-emerging from hibernation
and venturing into the concert world once again. It feels so good to be back! There
is a giddy joy when entering a place of music, feeling the awe of live sounds
and the sight of other humans on stage and off. For me that meant a short trip
to the under-rated Torrance Performing Arts Center and an amazing but cozy cabaret
show by the brilliant singer Perla Batalla. The intimate George Nakano theater
at TOCA is the perfect place for music with lyrics that matter and fine
musicianship that the show possessed in plentiful supply.
The concert was a fine sampler of the singer’s
best stuff, drawing from albums and materials spanning several decades. There
was “Cinema of Tears” and “Iberia” from the greatly lauded “Mestiza” record
enhanced by the accompaniment of daughter Eva Batalla Mann who seems to have grown
into a voice to match the mountains of her Mom’s Everest. Perla has travelled the world singing and
telling stories while glorifying the art of the great Leonard Cohen who she
once sang with in his best years. She did him justice over and over at this
show. Her reading of “Bird on the Wire” is perfection but the sweet surprises
were a somewhat rocking “Aint No Cure for Love,” “the Partisan,” “Suzanne” and
a duet of “Anthem” that showed the greatness of the poet. Batalla took no
chances with a superb small ensemble including a terrific guitar/oud player Dimitris
Mahlis, upright-bass man Mike Velasquez, renaissance gent/ percussionist Claud
Mann and Karen Hammack on piano who could be a concert all on her own.
You want divine singing, we heard that with
a sublime “the Nearness of You,” Eva leading a percolating “I Can See Clearly
Now” and a Mother’s Day hug to Perla’s dear Mom in “Gracias a La Vida” up tempo
and out of sight as they used to say when I was young. Not that she needed it,
but Perla had an Ace up her sleeve when she introduced a young man calling
himself Bud Foster. Foster may look rather angelic, but his music is from an
old and grand tradition. As an aficionado of folk songs, I loved the sound from
the first guitar chords of “Jack the Gambler” which continued into what I
assumed to be “Bud Foster.” While this folk singer is very young, he has confidence
when he opens his mouth to sing that belies his innocent countenance. His style
is multiple parts Dick Gaughan, Martin Simpson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and maybe even
a little Woody Guthrie. The voice is clear and strong while his guitar accompaniment
is free from any vagaries. He continued with a Marty Robbins-worthy “Dark Eyed
Senorita” and was joined by the generous Perla Batalla and Eva on a version of “Lo
and Behold” that I would have paid cash for in the lobby had it been on sale.
There was more and it was wonderful. Her
fans will not allow the singer to deny them” Cucurrucucu Paloma” which she did
while lowering the blood pressure of the entire room. You haven’t lived until
you have heard this song live. The finale of the full compliment on stage “Hallelujah”
with the help of a few enthusiastic audience members was a fitting farewell.
Live music! So Good!