Tacky Daddy, by Alfredo Muro.

Cuatro Tiempos Jovenes, by Alfredo Muro

by AU ALUMNA DYANE JEAN FRANÇOIS FILS

Happy hour is a popular and time-honored tradition among young professionals in the Washington area. On Connecticut Avenue alone, you can find numerous bars and lounges, each catering in a particular way to your drinking pleasure. At Café Citron, for instance, if you have enough drinks you can eventually turn your party’s table into a dancing floor. But, if you’re secretly yearning for champagne instead of vodka tonic, or folk music rather than the latest hip-hop joints, then come to the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center.

Every night at 6, D.C. music lovers come to the Kennedy Center for an hour of free live music. Although most of the regular attendees are over the age of 35, there is a lively ambience complete with finger foods and white wine that patrons may purchase from the bar set up at the back of the room.

Last week the audience was especially jazzed about Alfredo Muro, a versatile classical artist. Heads bobbed as the older folks sipped away their shyness. Awash in red light, the soft-spoken Peruvian guitarist opened the show with a flamenco gem, In Tientos.Despite his classical training as a guitarist, Muro insists that what he plays is a mixture of influences from Bach to Afro-Brazilian samba. On Bachianinha #1, Muro delighted the audience with a medley that harkened back to the intensity of Bach’s arrangements, while the higher tones added a lightness and playfulness characteristic of Afro-Latin rhythms.

Photo By Dyane Jean Francois Fils for the American Observer. Alfredo Muro talks to Millenium Stage audience.

Photo By Dyane Jean Francois Fils for the American Observer. Jose Luna, a New Jersey-based musican, accompanied Alfredo Muro.

Muro taught himself how to play the guitar at the age of 10. He said he has fallen in love with what he described as the “wild, sensual, dramatic” rhythms of Afro-Brazilian music.”Everything that has a strong rhythm comes from the African culture,” Muro said.

On Cuatro Tiempos Jovenes, Muro invited guest musician Jose Luna, a fellow Peruvian whom he has not seen since he left Lima in 1989, to join him. Luna added the full-bodied sound of the cajón (a traditional percussian instrument) to the piece, making it more lively and danceable. This rectangular drum made of plywood is of Afro-Peruvian lineage and popular among flamenco masters such as Spain’s Paco de Lucia.

Although Muro discovered the guitar at an early age, he went on to earn a law degree and practice law in Peru for nine years.

“But the music was stronger and I changed the lawyer’s suitcase for the guitar case,” said Muro. Due to political and economic uncertainty in Peru, Muro moved to the United States, where he began to fully devote himself to music.

Muro, who also plays bass, cajón and charrango, represented his native country at the 16th Annual International Guitar Festival in 2005. He was also selected for the Jack Rosenberg Memorial Musician of the Month Award by the Jazz Society of Oregon in March of 2005.

Muro and his wife live in Portland, Ore. “Portland is my home, but Lima is where my heart is. One day I hope to return,” Muro said.

For more information about Alfredo Muro’s works, visit his Web site.