Chilean folk group treats fans at music school show

The music of Chilean folk group Inti-Illimani is pure beauty.

Their melodic, masculine voices rising and falling like the sinuous Andes mountains, the Inti-Illimani gave a tantalizing performance Friday night at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.

The eight members of the group commanded string, wind and percussion instruments with their blend of folkloric songs, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Brazilian sounds, Mexican melodies, Italian tarantellas and Latin jazz.

Poetic and passionate, their music is a continuous surprise -- lonesome and haunting, sentimental and gushing, playful and energetic, they take the audience into a stirring musical journey that makes the spirit truly soar.

Having recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, their repertoire includes 43 albums and more than 400 songs, many laden with references to the political and social strife Chile suffered in 1970s and 1980s under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

"Inti" means "sun" and "Illimani" means "mountain of peace" in the language of the Aymara people of the Andes.

More than 20 members have played for the Inti-Illimani over the decades, with current members ranging in ages from 28 to 60. All are from Chile except Efren Viera, who was born in Cuba.

Marcelo Coulon, 57, joined the group in 1978 and said its sound has evolved through the years in a journey of discovery of world sounds while also melding to accommodate different individuals' talents.

"The mountains of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile are a place without real frontiers," Coulon said. "We have such love for this sound, this great thing that was born so long ago."

Their love for their craft is evident on stage, where at times they seem to lose themselves as they close their eyes and travel to far away places. Other times, they playfully jam and play off each other, once even bursting into giggles as one of the band members forgot to take his ring off and ended up holding it in his teeth while playing percussion on the Peruvian cajon.

The Inti-Illimani played two back-to-back performances on Friday night. The first one got a much-deserved standing ovation from a sold-out crowd in the 400-seat venue.

Their two-month North American tour includes several Canadian cities and three dates in Georgia and Connecticut in November.

They plan to come back to the Windy City "sometime soon." We can only hope so.