XelaWho Magazine: Soltura


Let’s get right down to it: you didn’t come to Guatemala to hear gringos playing jazz. But you didn’t come to Guatemala for cold showers or a steady diet of eggs and those things actually are native. Anyway, live music is live music right? Especially when it’s good live music, and these guys are good. Soltura was formed a year ago by two faux-twins from Boston who started with flute and acoustic guitar. After five or so months an electronic keyboard was brought, a new guitar found and a few speakers happened upon giving them the equipment that would later be lugged from cantinas to art openings in search of gigs. Things, logistically speaking, have mellowed down a good bit since then (with a steady click of weekly shows and a more stable cast), but the music has only gotten better. The songs are mostly jazz standards and tend to be upbeat, bluesy and improvisational with some bossa or samba songs thrown in there for variety. The group ranges from two to five depending upon which show you catch them at, but the main three are (in order of general good looks)…
Rachel (vocals) Front (wo)man. Rachel Generally sings from inside a cardboard box so as not to steal the show with her jazz dancing. She has no particular plans to leave Xela and volunteers at a domestic violence shelter. She wishes the group knew how to play “Fever” by Peggy Lee.
	Fernando (saxophone) A family man/music prodigy, you’ll only see him on sax with Soltura but rest assured he could rip any guitar, marimba, conga or microphone a new one if he so desired. He has his own group called Sombrero Negro that plays here in Xela.
Galen (piano) He likes romantic walks in the rain, children and conversations about world peace and love. No, but he really does like kids. He also can play a few different instruments and is the default maestro of the group, snagging his own solo time whilst keeping everyone else on track with walking bass and stabbed chords.