Mi casa, su casa! Yes, we were completely at home with Eddie Palmieri and his Latin jazz band last night. Celebrative, fiery and yet soothing, his music took us all to a place we oddly felt we belonged despite the cultural differences.

Eddie opened his hour-and-a-half set alone, delivering an evocative piano medley of Colombia Te Canto and Donatere with subtlety and grace. But that proved to be a teaser. For it wasn’t long before his band of musicians with timbales and other percussion, double bass, congas, trumpet and alto sax sauntered on stage and launched into a joyous, full-blown repertoire of Latin jazz scorchers that were muy caliente!

High-energy crowd-pleasers such as Crew, the outstanding Slowvisor, and Doctor Duck sent the audience into a head-bopping frenzy. Then as the crowd clapped along enthusiastically to the clave rhythm of You Dig, egged on by the ever-beaming Eddie, he announced, “You are welcome to dance in the aisle if you want to!” before throwing himself into the spirited Palmas. And the crowd went mad, some rushing to the aisles and strutting their salsa moves, much to the delight and amusement to the non-dancers lodged in their seats.

It was nice to see each musician also enjoying his place in the sun with masterful instrumental solos, encouraged by gregarious bandleader Eddie, making the concert a true celebration of world-class musicianship. But it was ultimately Eddie’s virtuosic piano solo bits, in addition to some fantastic trumpet playing (was that trumpet master and composer Brian Lynch?), that stood out.

Thus it was with love and a climactic energy that Eddie and his band, fired by the audience’s enthusiasm, played their final encore piece, the heavily percussive salsa piece Comparsa, cueing in the closure of Mosaic Music Festival 2008 with a riotous celebration and smiles all round. Here’s to next year, folks!

9:15pm: Tribal Tide, as its name suggests, is a band of musicians and percussionists that fuses elements of various cultures - Latin, Indian, Brazilian and more - for their own unique blend of progressive, percussive world music. One of Mohd Noor’s students also took the stage to perform a solo on the Brazilian percussive instrument, the pandeiro, and charmed the crowd with his self-assured performance!

10:30pm: When it comes to paying homage to the great tradition of rock ‘n’ roll, no one does it quite as well as the Koreans. Blending ska, punk and rock, Korea’s Crying Nut had their sound down pat as they blazed through their set with hyperactive energy. Despite the language barrier, the band also managed to get the crowd to sing along to their songs. Like Crying Nut’s bassist’s favorite phrase, “rock ‘n’ roll!” indeed!

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