It turns out there are some strong connections between this band and some Toronto musicians and at least one new connection was forged. Unfortunately, the usual trumpet player with the band, Matt Hilgenberg, could not make it due to a last-minute emergency so local trumpet player/composer/York University faculty member Michael Marcuzzi, previously unknown to the band, stepped up to the plate — and did a fine job. He received the sheet music on Wednesday morning, Wednesday night; he was playing with the band at their Guelph engagement. When Bryan Vargas commented on how well he fit in, Michael said, “I’ve been following you guys for six years”.

¡Ya Esta! conguero, Ernesto Abreu, was excited to learn that fellow conguero Luis Orbegoso was still living in Toronto. Abreu had met Orbegoso before when he played with the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra in Toronto. Word got around and Luis Orbegoso showed up on the Friday night, sitting in for a tune to treat everyone to a virtuoso conga solo. Two other impressive guests from Toronto were alto saxophonist Sundar Viswanathan and soprano saxophonist Daniel Schmee. Sundar Viswanathan added some straight-ahead jazz stylings into the mix and among other lines, Schmee added a little quartertone run. Daniel Schmee is currently working on his Ph.D. theses at York on saxophone techniques for middle-eastern music, where Sundar Viswanathan is a professor. Viswanathan was working on his Ph.D. at NYU when he met Bryan Vargas, an undergrad at the time. Viswanathan also played in a band with the drummer, Matt Baranello for six years when he lived in New York.

Bryan Vargas is an excellent bandleader and sets up a warm rapport with the audience. Thursday night’s audience was more of a sitting and listening crowd, so he took the time for a little story telling to set up his pieces. Friday’s audience was more of a dance/party crowd. Accordingly, Bryan kept words to a minimum. Both nights the band was received with great enthusiasm and applause.

Here’s a play by play of Night One. Night Two, I took Bryan Vargas’ fewer words idea to the extreme and wrote none. It was my opportunity to dance.

Thursday’s show opened in a traditional Cuban manner with a prayer to the Orishas, the band all playing percussion, then chanting over the rich matrix. Next the bass entered and then electric guitar. Playing this non-traditional instrument in a timeless prayer, Bryan Vargas departed more and more from the traditional, eventually using reverb and entering into Hendrix territory. The most surprising thing was how naturally it fit.

Next came the light, bright “United, juntos” originally written for an animated short, “a little Sesame Street-style thing, simple”, Bryan told us, “the film was never made but we liked the tune, so we kept it”. With prominent clave, nice bass work, trumpet, and as always with this band, richly layered, tight percussion and drums, it’s a tune that just kind of rolls along.

The first as yet unrecorded tune of the evening was written for a weekly gig at Chevy’s Tex Mex directly across from Ground Zero. “Really, they called me up. I thought you sure you want me? It lasted a week. Anyway, this is a tune to clean out the bad vibes”. A pretty 'fusion' tune it flowed through fast conga work and electric guitar solos. The trumpet player shook the shekere, then took up trumpet again, after which every instrument turned percussive including voices and guitar as the trumpet player again took up the shekere and the piece concluded in a chant.

“No Me Llores”, a classic from the great Cuban composer, percussionist, tres player and singer Arsenio Rodriguez, is one of my personal favourites. Bryan Vargas & ¡Ya Esta! play a fabulous instrumental version, steamy, sensuous and entrancing.