L.A. Plena at the Autry National Center

Thinking of Ponce, Puerto Rico, brings to mind things like La Cruz del Vigia up on the hill, or the birth of great Salseros like Hector Lavoe and Cheo Feliciano, or sand-less but pebble-full beaches. It should also bring to mind Plena, the traditional music of Puerto Rico that originated in Ponce in the early 1900s and that was meant as an avenue for storytelling - a way to talk about the occurrences of the day and to express humorous satire.

Puerto Rican groups like Plena Libre have become ambassadors of it and have exposed the music to younger generations that are better acquainted with Salsa than with more traditional rhythms.

In the Los Angeles area, one group has been concentrating in this tropical genre - L.A. Plena. Under the direction of saxophonist and composer David Urquidi, L.A. Plena uses instruments traditional to Plena music, such as the panderetas, the guicharo, the accordion, the cuatro, and the maracas. These are enhanced by a strong percussion section that includes bongos, congas and timbales, and by the melodious sound of Urquidi’s saxophone.

On December 12, L.A. Plena performed a “Parranda Navidena” in the concert hall of the Autry National Center. For this presentation the band prepared a special repertoire of aguinaldos, or Puerto Rican Christmas songs. As a true parranda should go, the concert became a gathering of friends who sang together, laughed together, even paraded around the seats in an impromptu conga line, with much talk of arroz con gandules, lechon asa’o, and alcapurrias.

On stage were Dan Tai Lopez, Joey De Leon, and Walter Rodriguez switching back and forth between percussion instruments, a very funny Victor Muniz and James Zavaleta on vocals, Eddie Resto on bass, Ramon Ortiz on cuatro, and David Urquidi playing the accordion and the saxophone.

The audience was a healthy looking and happy sounding bunch, many of them Puerto Ricans, with a couple of well known names within them, like Johnny Crespo of Costa Azul (who joined L.A. Plena on stage for a few songs,) and the bandleader, pianist, and arranger Oscar Hernandez.

This is the first Plena event ever held at the Autry. The parranda was missing its due coquito and pasteles this time around, but if the organizers’ intentions come true, they may just be there next year.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the evening was a song during which anyone was welcomed to say a “bomba” between short spans of music. One of the callers was Hernandez, whose bomba recited, “Cuando vine a Los Angeles, me dijeron que no habia nada de ambiente Boricua, pero ahora llegue aqui al Autry, y miren lo que me encontre, vaya!” (When I came to L.A I was told there was no Boricua ambiance anywhere, and now I came to the Autry, and look what I've found!)