In COVID’s darkest days, the sonic sweep of a pandemic-downsized Richmond Symphony proved a perfect complement to the illuminating beauties of another city treasure, Miramar. This weekend, they play together again, this time with a full orchestra, new arrangements, and an exceptionally promising new year ahead.
It has been a slow burn for Miramar, with more than a bit of randomness in its formation. Vocalist Laura Ann Singh’s Quatro Na Bossa focused on Brazilian music, the cool sounds of samba, bossa nova, and their relatives. Keyboardist Marlysse Simmons and singer-songwriter Rei Alvarez’s Bio Ritmo expanded on the hotter stylings of salsa. They came together with Simmons’ genre-blending side project, Magrela Rose.
“We just started doing it for fun, we didn’t have a plan,” she says. “Rei and I were tired of just playing salsa. It’s hard to describe; it was fun, and we knew everybody loved it, but people just came out to party. We thought it would be fun to play shows where people listen. If you do something quiet, it feels like people are just waiting for it to be over so they can start dancing again.”
Singh collaborated on three or four Magrela Rose songs, and when the band opened for Bio Ritmo at Capital Ale House in the mid-2000s, she and Rei threw together a duet. “It was super last-minute,” Singh says. “I sang a verse in Portuguese, he sang a verse in Spanish, and we did some harmonies.” The almost intuitive interplay and perfect blend of voices was an immediate success. But it wasn’t an immediate focus.
Miramar recorded a demo album, then a full album. There were occasional gigs between Richmond and New York, but the group remained a side project. Then came their breakthrough album “Dedication to Sylvia Rexach” [Barbes], which centers on the songs of an amazing bolero composer whose music was as breathtakingly lovely as her Spanish poetry, though the latter limited her reach among English-speaking audiences. But for Miramar, the record started getting serious attention from critics. NPR’s influential alt-Latin specialist Felix Contreras, helped make them one of the first RVA groups on “Tiny Desk Concert.” This weekend, journalist Contreras will give the introductory talk and emcee the Miramar performance with the Symphony.
Since their acclaimed “Dedicated” album, the group has played from San Francisco to New York, Paris and Lyon, and had a tour of Russia sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. A Richmond semi-secret had gained global visibility.
On “Dedication,” and during the NPR “Tiny Desk” concert, Miramar was backed by Richmond’s Rosette Quartet, making it a forerunner of the full-scale boleros with strings of the Symphony shows. It also reflected the web of musical relationships that pervade Richmond; Rosette violinist Ellen Cockerham Riccio is the wife of Miramar (and Bio Ritmo) percussionist Giustino Riccio. Spacebomb bassist Cameron Ralston also played on the album. Olivier Conan, who founded both the Barbès label and Barbès Bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, played cuatro for frequent RVA visitor Chicha Libre, and is a key part of an emerging Richmond-Brooklyn world music axis.
Miramar’s sound has also expanded. Where “Dedication” focuses mostly on the work of a single composer from the golden age of Puerto Rican bolero, the forthcoming album, scheduled for release in January, is being promoted by new label Ansonia as a revival of “bolero-beat … a beloved pan-Latin genre from the late 1960s that blends boleros with elements of psychedelic rock, folk, bossa nova, funk, salsa, and more.” There is even a song in Greek, which is far from the music’s roots, but still within its influence.
But like many great musicians, they are not interested in labels. “It starts to pigeonhole you,” Singh says. “Bolero is this super-rich tradition. The new record just takes those lines and blows them up a bit.”
“Un Astro,” the first single, reveals something of the band’s evolving approach. The voices of Alvarez and Singh are backed by a chamber symphony; Simmons plays keyboards and Gary Kalar supplies an exotic-tinged guitar line. The rhythm section is Butcher Brown’s Andrew Jay Randazzo and Devonne Harris.
In their new video for the single, it’s worth reading the lyric translation in the notes. The song, written by Alvarez, is about the arrival of their son Desi. It is wonderfully written, heartfelt and deeply poetic. It’s also a substrate of the artistry of the band that may slide by non-Spanish speakers in a superficial swirl of urgently beautiful notes.
That song will definitely be played with the Richmond Symphony this weekend. So will “Como Tu Eres,” one of the originals on “Dedication” with lyrics written by Alvarez’s mother who just moved to the States and will be in the audience. (Also, Saturday is Alvarez’s birthday.) Reflecting the increased number of players in the group, all the songs have been rescored, most by Simmons but a few by Mark Messing, with additional horn arrangements by Bio Ritmo’s Toby Whitaker, and a couple arrangements by Kalar, who joins them on guitar this weekend, with Andrew Randazzo on bass and Scott Clark on drums. Homecoming Principal Guest Conductor (and Rochester Symphony Music Director) Chia-Hsuan Lin will lead the Richmond Symphony.
Miramar can shine as the emotionally resonant trio of Singh, Alvarez and Simmons, or swell to the sweeping, cinematic scale of a major orchestra. But at its core is the beating heart of the bolero, melodically moving, touched with sadness and remembered joy.
It is music intimate in expression, universal in emotion.
Miramar and the Richmond Symphony play at the Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. Doors are at 6:30 p.m., and there will be a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15-85, with discounts for students and children.
Correction: an earlier version of this story misstated the bassist who will be appearing with Miramar this weekend, it is Andrew Randazzo.
