It's always bittersweet the last night of a concert tour and such was the case when South American vocalists/musicians, Mariana Montalvo, Belo Velloso and Toto Momposina hit the stage at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.  After all, this was the last concert of their two month Putumayo showcase tour, but that doesn't mean the musicians weren't in a celebratory mood, far from it.  The show opened with a short set by Brazilian chanteuse Belo Velloso from the Bahia region of northeastern Brazil.  The niece of two of Brazil's stellar talents, Caetano Velloso and Maria Bethania, this long-haired beauty seduced the audience with her silky vocals and her rubber-like dancing body.  When she first appeared on stage she was wearing an elegant blue suit then she removed her jacket to sport a colorful carnivalesque blouse that would have made a parrot proud.  She was accompanied by two guitarists and a percussionist.  Together these musicians grooved on samba and whet the appetite for more great music to follow.  Sadly for those folks who enjoyed Belo's set will have a difficult time finding one of her recordings outside of a trip to Brazil or surfing the Internet.  She's still a fledgling to U.S. audiences, but I am certain that this is only the beginning of a successful career for the performer.

Next up was Chilean Mariana Montalvo, a performer and a performance that I was anticipating for two years (after I found her first U.S. recording).  Waiting for this tour to arrive in Seattle could be compared to children waiting for Christmas.  I happen to enjoy performances by traditional women musicians and this tour featured three in one venue.  Mariana dressed in blues and mauve also came off as elegant.  She appeared with only two musicians, a flautist who played both standard flute and panpipes and a second guitarist.  Mariana played guitar, charanga and another South American lute and sang songs that mostly derived from her first U.S. release, Cantos del Alma.  Her powerful vocals were backed by flute and lute, but on her finale, Pel De Aceituna, a guest drummer appeared on stage.  Mariana is both a subtle and a commanding performer.  She might be relatively new to U.S. audiences, but is a veteran in Paris, France where she has resided since 1974.  And like any veteran performer, she and her musicians know how to please an audience.  I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that I enjoyed her performance and would have liked to have seen much more.  Here's hoping she comes back with a full band and a longer set in the future.

The final performer of the evening, Colombian Toto La Momposina.  Toto performed Afro-Latin music mostly from the coastal plains of Columbia which included salsa (from Cuba) and cumbia.  Toto was supported by a full band of percussionists, guitarists, a bassist, and a flutist.  And these musicians were something else and as energetic as Mexican jumping beans.  Dressed in blue and gold traditional gown, Toto opened her set with an invocation, a cappella and in half light.  The image she provoked was divine and as the women behind me kept saying, beautiful.  Then the vocalist and her band launched into acoustic grooves that cause hips to ache because the body in its natural state desires to dance.  And seeing the musicians pound on drums, and Toto swaying her hips and sashaying around the stage only added to the effect.  Certainly Toto was the star of the evening and not just because she performed last and the longest set.  This veteran performer (has been performing for 35 years) knows how to work an audience and leave them begging for more.  The entire concert ended with all the musicians returning to the stage and then forming a conga line that paraded through the theatre.

I have no idea what other tours Putumayo is putting together, but if those tours are anything like what I witnessed with these three performers, make sure you are in the audience attending at least one of those concerts.

-- Patty-Lynne Herlevi