Review: Final Show in This Season's Afrosonic Music Series at the Black Rep

By: Marianne Messina, ARTSMASH RI

So how did this Black Repertory mashup between PBS' Low Water and BET's Chachi Carvalho go? Sort of like a wedding party – slow and smooth for the good meal, then breaking loose for the family fiesta. Short by a guitarist, Low Water was a three-piece surrounded by stage; Carvalho's nine-piece Eleventh Island Band was a stage takeover, crowding the stage with horn section, keys, drum kit, conga drums, guitar, bass, and DJ tables. And every instrument was going full tilt. Low Water comes on like a cottage by the lake, phased-guitar dreamy, horse-clop groovy, and Carvalho comes in like urban train wreck. Common to both bands are their stick-to-the-ribs melody lines. Leitera's vocals suck you into a song; his lyrics -- when you can pick them out -- smack your brain, and the fits-and-starts drum beats call you to attention. With Carvalho, you never know where the melody will show up. It could show up on bass as Chachi raps about a bad system. It could show up the next song on sax (as in "Un Perde Cheu"). In keeping with Afrosonic's reputation for mashing genres, cultures and age groups, these very different bands played together with
the full respect of the house.

Read the full review at ArtsmashRI.ning.com