Khenany brings Latin American music to Los Gatos for the Community Concert series.
By Bob Aldrich
Latin American rhythms will fill the Los Gatos High School auditorium April 21 when the musical group Khenany performs in the third concert of the current Los Gatos Community Concert season.
Dominating the 2:30 p.m. program will be be salsa, rhumba, cha cha, samba, bossa nova, and especially the haunting and often beautiful native songs of the Andes mountains. Most of Khenany's songs are in Spanish, but Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire, as well as some English selections, are included.
Organized in 1981, the seven-member ensemble performs traditional tunes from throughout Latin America. Some of Khenany's instruments are not too well-known to North American audiences; they include the harmonic Andean quena zampano (bagpipes), the Venezuelan cuatro, Argentine drum and tenabaris (butterfly cocoons).
Khenany, pronounced kay-NAH-nee, a Mexican folklore group founded 15 years ago in Cuidad Obregon, Sonora, has been praised by reviewers for offering something different from typical Mexican music and for rescuing folk tunes from oblivion.
The concert April 21 is next to the last in the present season-ticket series sponsored by the Los Gatos Community Concert Association. Call 356-7268 or 377-1106 for information.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 17, 1996
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