By:Susan Lin
A combination of physical storytelling and ethnic music, "Sofrito!" will be showing Saturday at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville.
Performer David Gonzalez, who wrote and stars in "Sofrito!," said the show is named after a cooking base that's popular in Puerto Rico and the nations of the Caribbean Sea.
"Sofrito is a sauce that Latino cooks put before they make anything else, and grandma usually keeps a bucket of it in the fridge. It's made of tomatoes, garlic, oils and spices," said Gonzalez, 45, who lives in Rockland County, N.Y.
A metaphor for the show, "Sofrito!" is also a mixture of good things: myth-telling, performance art, and the salsa, flamenco, jazz and mambo music of the Latin Legends Band, also performing on stage Saturday.
In the hour-long show, Gonzalez will tell old folk stories culled from his Latino heritage. Some he heard from his parents while growing up in the Bronx. Gonzalez' mother is from Puerto Rico, and his father arrived from Cuba.
One pre-Columbian tale from Puerto Rico called "Milomaki" focuses on a singer who can heal with his voice. He later becomes endangered but is saved by transforming himself into a palm tree. The legend is that Milomaki is the source of the melodious sounds one hears in the forest.
Others stories Gonzalez learned from reading and research. They include folk tales from Africa, Cuba and one from the Dominican Republic about a girl who befriends a magical goldfish.
Then there's also a story called "The Man Who Could Make Trees Sing," a true story about Gonzalez's uncle Jose, who made Gonzalez's first guitar.
While featuring many myths, "Sofrito!" is probably the opposite of a storyteller sitting in a chair and speaking. The hour-long show is funny at many points, a physical performance -- and is accompanied by the acclaimed Latin Legends Band, which is scheduled to play the Apollo Theater in Manhattan (without Gonzalez) this same weekend.
Four of the six members of the band will be at the Tilles Center: Larry Harlow, playing key boards, and is best known for his trumpet and trombone sounds that revolutionized salsa in the early 1970s. Also appearing is Bobby Sanabria, playing drums; Guillermo Edghill, on bass; and Wilson "Chembo" Corniel, on Conga drums and percussion.
"The music brings emotion and energy to the story-telling, and when you have it combined, it's one plus one equals 17 million," said Gonzalez, who first became acquainted with Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends Band in 1995.
Extending the Sofrito metaphor, Gonzalez said the show also brings the generations together to have fun. "Sofrito!" has something for children as young as age 5 as well as older adults.
"There are many different levels and values in each myth, like how in an Aesop's fairy tale, a seven year old would get involved with the characters and rhythms, while an adult would suddenly start to see their mid-life crisis reflected," said Gonzalez.
"Sofrito!" debuted in 1997 on Broadway at the New Victory Theater, and is dedicated to Gonzalez' late grandmother. "When she died [in 1994], I really wanted to make a conscious tribute to her and her traditions, and what they meant to me and my life," said Gonzalez.
At a Glance
"Sofrito!"
w/the Latin Legends Band
10 a.m. & 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, C.W. Post Campus, Route 25A, Brookville, (516) 299-3100.
$18.
