Eva Ayllon

Peruvian singer Eva Ayllon is a diva, but she's also a folkloric artist with a message about race, class and self-esteem in her home country. A black Peruvian, she began singing musica criolla in the late 1970s, and now plays to crowds of 30,000 in Lima. Her genre's combination of ballads and up-tempo dance numbers, once a nearly forgotten approach, draws from African and Spanish influences blended by slaves who worked Peru's silver mines and sugar plantations.

Saturday night at the Lincoln Theatre, Ayllon and a nine-piece band turned traditionals and 20th-century poetry into contemporary vehicles for flirting, strutting and educating. Wearing a long, close-fitting velvet dress, the nearly 50-year-old South American legend gyrated sensually on speedy festejos such as the mixed-race tale "Inga," supported by an exuberant percussive cacophony.

Instrumentalists on cajon (a wooden box), mini-maracas, the quijada (donkey jawbone), bongos and bass provided the mother-country-rooted bottom, while the acoustic guitarist added the Iberian-derived flamenco-like high end. On waltz-based numbers like "Fina Estampa" and soulful landos like "Negra Presentuosa," the keyboardist led the more syrupy playing, while Ayllon struck theatrical poses and sang powerfully if a bit too melodramatically on certain numbers.

By evening's end, many pleased audience members were pulling out their cell phones to take pictures of Ayllon, who blew kisses to them during the encore.

-- Steve Kiviat