World music

Oscar D'León

3 stars Roundhouse, London

Oscar D'León is one of the great Latin survivors. On the day after his 65th birthday, he is on stage well after midnight, dancing furiously, singing and playing stand-up bass. Making his first London appearance in five years, he provided a rousing reminder of his continuing status as a salsa legend, though he is now remarkable more for his sheer stamina and force of personality than for his sometimes questionable musical judgment.

Born in Venezuela, massively influenced by Cuban stars such as Beny Moré, but based for many years in the US, D'León is the great salsa all-rounder, capable of constantly switching between different styles, or from a croon to a falsetto. A striking figure, with his bald head, black moustache and immaculate grey suit and pink tie, he started the show by namechecking the countries of Latin America, presumably so that he could tell the make-up of his audience by the response. Then he was off, switching from easy-going Cuban-influenced salsa to harder-edged styles, spurred on by the dancers, many of them a third of his age.

His band consisted of five brass players (including three trademark trombones) and five percussionists, and the playing was impressively tight, with few excursions into jazz improvisation. Instead, D'León mixed salsa with variety, bringing his own acrobatic dancers on to the stage, or veering off into a cabaret routine that included anything from an unwanted revival of Macarena to a blues sequence featuring a Louis Armstrong impersonator and scat trombone vocal effects from D'León, who had now thrown off his jacket and tie. By the end of a patchily impressive two-hour set, he was draped in a Venezuelan flag and urging the band through more rousing, choppy salsa riffs.

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