Being an ambassador to a 300 year old tradition cannot be an easy burden to bear.  Yet bearing burdens with resilience is precisely what oppressed people have been doing for millennia.  The dance and music collective Peru Negro handles its share with finesse.  Its 35-year tradition and second CD Jolgorio are abundant proof that you can dismantle your master’s house using his tools—and make stirring, enduring music in the process.  Denied permission to use drums in the 1700s, the slave population improvised, adapting the cajas used to collect produce in the fields and money in the Catholic churches to create an uplifting, moving sound that preserved and promoted their mixed African, Indian, and Spanish heritage.  Through its various styles of dance and song, Peru Negro tells tales of colonial conquest, spiritual kinship, and sexual courtship with a captivating combination of lyrical irony, seductive motion, dazzling polyrhythmic virtuosity, and engaging call-and-response vocals.  Producer Rony Campos and vocalist Monica Dueñas lead the troupe with an infectious blend of confidence and poise borne of intuition and discipline.  The music is clearly in their souls and it doesn’t take much before it’s in yours.