After 200 spicy shows up in Asheville, husband-and-wife team “West” Bolz and Iliana Ramìrez think they’re ready for the big time – and a big band. To make their point, they’re splashing down in Charlotte with a series of four concerts at the Grand Central Ballroom.
They’re transporting their Eta Carina moniker along with them to the dance floor, but behind them onstage there will be beefed-up accompaniment. A newly formed salsa herd, Orquestra Carolina, is ready to stampede with three percussionists, a four-piece horn section and an eclectic mix of Latin rhythms.
“It’s a mix of originals and famous tunes — modern tunes with a Latin flavor,” says Ramìrez, the lead singer of Eta Carina. “Not only salsa and merengue and cumbia, which are the most popular, but we also do cha-chas, a little bit of lambada from Brazil, a little bit of tango, all the styles. The dancer community here in Charlotte has a lot of variety in the styles that they do. All the ballroom dancing and all the dancing schools teach all kinds of styles. That’s what we love, and they love it, too.”
While taking on the challenge of assembling a tight-knit group of 12-plus musicians to cope with their many-flavored playlist, Bolz and Ramìrez have also recruited some local dance teachers and schools to add extra tang to Wednesdays at Grand Central. Each of the four concerts will be preceded by live dance lessons, with different guest teachers every week.
Doors open at 7 p.m., a half hour before the free dance lessons. Leading off the lineup this week will be Jubelin Ramìrez, representing the Havana Social Club from Cornelius.
“For December 5, we are having Queen City Mambo,” Iliana Ramìrez reveals. “They are a dance troupe, and they are going to do a dance demonstration from Cuban styles, salsa and rhumba. Then for December 12, we are having Charlotte Latin Dance, and for December 19, we are having Charlotte Salsa Dance.”
Trumpets, timbales, piano and the peppery Ramìrez take the stage at 8:30 p.m., with music, arrangements, orchestra direction and lead guitar from bandleader Bolz. The couple met seven years ago when Ramìrez, a native Venezuelan, came up to the United States to study English. They co-founded Eta Carina in 2002.
Charlotte and Orquestra Carolina aren’t the last stops on Eta Carina’s projected career path. Named after a Milky Way nebula sporting the most powerful star in the known universe, Eta Carina plans to release their first CD in 2008. Of the three tracks I’ve sampled, “Dame Un Besito” and “Boulevard” are packing the most heat, with Ramìrez holding her own against the pico-de-gallo trumpets. More music has already been recorded.
Meanwhile, the Grand Central series isn’t a four-night stand. Bolz and Ramìrez are planning to rekindle their romance with Charlotte’s salsa fanciers early next year, hoping to woo us back to the dance floor every Wednesday, beginning the second or third week in January.
Yes, they’re planning to keep it on Central Avenue for the foreseeable future.
“Grand Central is a perfect place,” says Ramìrez with characteristic enthusiasm. “It has a perfect dance floor, it has chairs and tables, which people love. You can come to dance, to watch, or to listen!”
Megawatts in Grieg
“Ouch!” “Uncle!”
No such cries of distress really came from the audience after Andrè Watts concluded his galvanic performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto last Monday evening at Belk Theater. Carolinas Concert Association subscribers rose appreciatively to their feet, with lusty bravos proclaiming their approval, as the first concert of 2007-08 by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra thundered to intermission.
Scattered amid the unanimous acclamation, all dissenters were seemingly silenced. So the only conceivable outcries of pain and submission were not caused by Watts’ sonic assault on the eardrums.
If anything was injured by Watts’ controlled fury, it was the defenseless Steinway in the middle of the stage. Watts was under no obligation to leave this hapless instrument the way he found it, and I doubt if he did.
Now Bergen, if you didn’t know, is a Norwegian city that celebrated its 900th birthday in 1970. Its orchestra predates Grieg’s Concerto by more than a century, so it’s no surprise that members of the Bergen Phil have a special affinity with their countryman’s music and the composer’s most famed warhorse. They’ve recorded the piece at least three times, twice with Leif Ove Andsnes, the most celebrated Norwegian soloist alive.
Almost forgot: Edvard Grieg was the Bergen Phil musical director back in 1880-82, no doubt imprinting his musical temperament upon the orchestra’s DNA during the course of his tenure.
Yet under the direction of Andrew Litton, the Bergen ensemble initially sounded surprised, shocked and awed by Watts’ wattage as he tore into the familiar allegro moderato. American by birth, with extensive training across the pond, Litton brings some British colorations to the Bergen sound, stately at its best but occasionally tentative.
Winds and strings were sounding unnecessarily straightforward while Watts was already afire. Cellos didn’t glow with tenderness until called upon a second time. Happily, when we reached the thunder and earthquake of the cadenza, soloist and ensemble were emotionally simpatico.
Fearless and forceful as he was in the opening movement, there was no lack of lyricism, lilt and nuance from Watts when he explored the middle adagio. Fresh passion poured forth in the quietest moments as persuasively as it did when Grieg called upon him to be fervid.
Toe-tapping zestfulness possessed the closing allegro. Watts could have struck the first Beethovenian sforzando more cleanly, but there were plenty of hammer blows afterwards to snap your head back. The slow oasis in the middle of the movement, nicely partnered by the Phil, set us up beautifully for the thrilling return of the main theme.
The Bergens delved into Tchaikovsky after intermission with a full, rich sound. This Tchaikovsky #4 culminated with an allegro caressed with that British stateliness I mentioned before, not a bad thing. But not the best thing. Compared with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra performance I reviewed back in April, the music wasn’t nearly as exciting, no matter how much more massive the ensemble sounded or how much more consistently the sections played.
CSO could take a lesson from our guests, however, by listening to the smaller nuggets in Bergen Phil’s repertoire. Summers at SouthPark often have our Symphony skewing toward Sousa and schlock when they’re concise. Bergen opened with a fine, slowly crescendoing piece by Norway’s Harald Saeverud, “Ballad of Revolt.” Grieg’s “The Last Spring,” plucked from his Two Elegiac Melodies, was a sweet Nordic encore, blanketed in Wagnerian languor. A perfect springboard for the sprightly adieu, Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.”
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2007.
