Great Barrington — In conjunction with Festival Latino of the Berkshires, the Villalobos Brothers will appear at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on September 28 to perform music from their soon-to-be-released latest album featuring Mexican music sung in English.
The Villalobos Brothers—Alberto, Ernesto, and Luis—identify themselves as a family band, and they attribute their longevity to the bonds of fraternal love. They are almost certainly the only ensemble in the world to apply the high-level classical music chops of three concerto-playing prodigies with traditional Mexican music that sometimes crosses over into Latin jazz, Latin pop, or any number of other styles that have earned them a “World Music” classification.
I hate to be a name dropper, but… Springsteen. Yes, Luis Villalobos played violin on two of The Boss’s songs: “Stones” and “Somewhere North of Nashville.” That gives you an idea of the circles in which these guys travel. Besides Bruce Springsteen, they have collaborated with a highly diverse array of artists, including Morley, Paloma San Basilio, Paddy Moloney and The Chieftains, Eddie Palmieri, Graciela, Dolly Parton, León Gieco, Leni Stern, César Camargo Mariano, Lila Downs, Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz, Pierre Boulez, Alberto Vázquez, Johnny Ventura, Dan Zanes, and Rafael Escalona.
I spoke on the phone with Luis Villalobos last week to learn about the group’s upcoming Mahaiwe appearance, which will feature material from their upcoming release, with many songs sung in English. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
EDGE
I hardly know where to start, because you guys have such broad capabilities. What are you playing on your current tour, and what’s the instrumentation?
LUIS
It’s material that we haven’t performed much on the East Coast. So I think it will be new to many. We’re excited to come to this area. We we haven’t toured that much upstate, I mean, in between Massachusetts and New York—which is funny, because we started in New York City. But it’s all material from our new album that we recorded earlier this year, which should come out next year.
We’ll be performing as a quintet this time around, with no drums. But it will be guitar and bass and, of course, the three violins and the three voices.
Our shows have a little bit of everything: of course, some touches of Mexican music, and some touches of jazz and Mexican Trova. And, of course, we are singing. It will be an interesting combination for sure, and hopefully people will dig it.
EDGE
And with the Mexican music, are you still focused on the Veracruz style?
LUIS
Yes. We take inspiration from two genres that are not Mariachi, which is usually what people recognize, internationally, as Mexican music. It has had sort of a resurgence, and, internationally, people are listening to more of it. But it’s an entire genre that people don’t know much about, and we love it, because it features violin naturally, as part of the basic instrumentation. It’s about performing trios in the north of Veracruz. Some of the musicians in that area are amazing! They never attended music school, and yet they play fabulous, fabulous music. So we take inspiration from that, and you can hear it in our music.
EDGE
Is there anybody else doing traditional Mexican music that has the depth of classical training that you guys have?
LUIS
I don’t know for sure. But that is an important characteristic of our group. Most classical musicians stay in classical, and most traditional musicians stay in traditional music. We do both. So, yeah, I think that’s unique to our group. Also, the fact that we are brothers and play the same instrument… No, I am I’m not aware of any group that does what we do. But if you know of any, that would be super interesting!
EDGE
Is there anything else people should know about the music you’ll be playing at the Mahaiwe on the 28th?
LUIS
Well, you know, I just finished composing a piece that is going to be the first that we sing in English. We have toured the U.S. for many, many years. Ah! But our show has always been sung in Spanish, which is funny, because we always present all the songs, and we talk to the audience in English. But then, of course, our compositions come across more naturally in Spanish. Just last year, I finished this composition, and we recorded it.
And the day after our performance at the Mahaiwe, we plan to shoot the music video for it at one of the beautiful waterfalls that are in the area very, very close by. We will make sure to share it with the Mahaiwe audience very soon after our performance, and I’m sure people will recognize the places where we are shooting. I think we will release this song as a single before releasing the album.
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Hear the Villalobos Brothers at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on September 28, at 7 p.m. Admission is free with registration. More information here.
