Music REview
Juan Luis Guerra
At Citi Wang Theatre, Saturday
Juan Luis Guerra emerged into the sold-out Wang Theater on Saturday night by stepping out of a telephone booth. The prop would have seemed anachronistic even 30 years ago, when this Dominican native first emerged onto the global stage. Back then, Guerra and his band 4.40 released a series of hit albums that reshaped bachata and merengue into transnational Latin American pop staples, transforming this former Berklee College jazz student into the Dominican Republic’s most renowned popular musician.
As he stepped forward to the microphone, the gangly 58-year-old singer-songwriter looked just as retro as the phone booth, sporting gray slacks, a newsboy cap, and a white shirt under a brown vest buttoned up tight — dignified attire more or less followed by the 14 men and one woman in 4.40.
But then the musicians kicked into the punchy mix of merengue horns, rock power chords, and rap-like recitative of “Cookies and Cream,’’ the opening number from Guerra’s latest album, “Todo Tiene Su Hora’’ (“Everything Has Its Time’’). The song’s modern bray instantly turned “retro’’ into “pliably classic’’ — not exactly timeless, but mastering time’s flow like Ecclesiastes preaches, a lofty achievement certified by the impressive age range of the 3,500 concertgoers present.
The performers slipped back to the 2007 hit “La Travesía,’’ (“The Crossing’’), before dropping way back into “Ojalá que Llueva Café’’ (“Let’s Hope It Rains Coffee’’), a 1989 breakthrough bachata that instantly brought the few fans still seated to their feet. Pumped by backing tapes of choral voices, the song demonstrated the yearning, florid sweep that propelled Guerra’s fame across the globe, weaving a cross-stylistic hammock into which his more workmanlike new songs still comfortably nestle.
Guerra then took a brief moment to bend over with his hands on his knees, as if to catch his breath or offer silent supplication, before resuming a performance lasting nearly two hours. Highlights included a long percussion solo break, a mock phone-call duet with a video of the legendary Johnny Ventura (“De Moca a Paris’’), a confetti cannon, and hits that ranged from giddy romance (“La Bilirrubina’’) to social criticism (“El Niagara en Bicicleta’’) and born-again Christianity (“Para Ti’’). After closing with another Christian merengue, “Las Avispas’’ (“The Wasps’’), the modest superstar slipped behind the side of the phone booth, leaving his band to take the final bow.
Juan Luis Guerra
At Citi Wang Theatre, Saturday
Franklin Soults can be reached at fsoults@gmail.com.
