Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, Peru Negro is a pioneer in Afro-Peruvian music. The group was born in 1969 when founding member Ronaldo Campos, who recently passed away, began focusing more explicitly on the African music roots that have characterized Peruvian music since the slave trade. These roots were disguised starting in the 1700's when Peru's slaves were banned from using their conventional drums and began playing the cajon, a wooden box used as percussion. The story of the following two-and-a-half centuries of Peruvian music was one of diverse hybridization. Only in the 1950s did Afro-Peruvian music rediscover its African origins, and Peru Negro has played an integral role in this revival since its inception. After a down period in the 1980s when political forces put a damper on Peruvian theater and the arts, the group is again thriving, especially under the new leadership of Rony Campos, Ronaldo's son.

The performance's frenzied percussion-only opener, "Afro," featured the group's regular dancers, dressed in beautiful costumes of simple red and white, shimmying to complex but catchy and melodic polyrhythms played on the cajons and congas. A defining quality of African music, polyrhythms were virtually unheard-of in what is traditionally conceived as Western music until about the 20th century, when modernist composers began assimilating into their works this technique of layering contrasting rhythms. "Afro" immediately established the thoroughly African tone of the night's program and drew the audience into its maze of beats.

In "Toque de Violin" a ridiculous figure dressed in a way reminiscent of a plantation owner, with blazer, white shirt, khakis, and a red necktie, stumbled onto the stage, carrying a violin and music stand. He spoke like a puppet to the audience, but no words came out. Occasionally he made a hilarious whining noise when he moved too much. When he was joined by the group of young dancers, he patronized them and tried to instruct them. The tone was playful, and an intermittent dance took place -- the man sometimes joining in for a few moments before over-exerting himself, and on one occasion bending over only to release a little gas unintentionally, as the disgusted gestures of the dancers suggested. With a perfect sense of humor, the skit evoked the richness of a culture that managed to thrive and have fun in the face of its enslavers. This was among the several comic skits Peru Negro incorporated seamlessly into its program of song and dance, and the stories these skits quietly acted out were among the highlights of the performance.

Other pieces included "songs," including a "tondero" (more or less a ballad) featuring vocals by Erika Alfaro and Monica Duenas, more dances with percussion extravaganzas, and a Peruvian tap dance. Bordering on the poppy side of the horribly-named genre "world music," the songs were generally the least captivating moments of the program, particularly the tondero. Interestingly, however, elements of the eclectic music of Talking Heads and the solo career of their frontman David Byrne, who drew heavily on Latin and African music and once collaborated with Peru Negro, were evident in these pieces. The tap dance occurred in the form of a dancing duel between two of the older male members of Peru Negro. This segment saw a great deal of entertaining interaction with the audience, as one tap dancer took a seat among the crowd and tried in vain to pull someone on stage, presumably to dance. (We were probably all better off that he declined.)

Later, however, the entire audience was persuaded to stand up, clap along with the intertwining rhythms and even sing a short refrain. It was one of the more raucous moments I have seen in Spaulding, and Peru Negro must be credited with having put on a truly energizing, compelling performance to cause it.