JAZZ REVIEW : Poncho Sanchez Adds a Dash of the Blues to Salsa Mix

With nine albums to his credit, and as many years leading his own group, Poncho Sanchez, who opened Thursday at the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Hollywood, has become one of the most dynamically dependable symbols of Latin jazz.

Like most bands of its kind, his eight-piece ensemble is built essentially around the percussion section. With the leader on congas, Ramon Banda on timbales and Jose (Papo) Rodriguez on bongos, the three-horn front line often plays a secondary role.

With David Torrez now serving as pianist and musical director, much of the music is composed or arranged by him. The tunes, a mixture of old-time salsa numbers and Latinized jazz pieces, sometimes lean toward blues-like elements and boppish figures.

Sanchez has two remarkable soloists in the trombonist Art Velasco, who dominated the Duke Ellington standard “In a Sentimental Mood,” and the trumpeter/fluegelhornist Sal Cracchiolo, a powerful performer with range and chops to spare.

Typically, in some of the more traditional mamboesque works, Sanchez and a couple of his sidemen will burst into good-humored vocals that are higher in spirit than artistry. But the band comes vividly alive when the leader is brewing ingenious cross-rhythms on his congas. During one 6/8 number, he stood up and attacked them with sticks, and in the final “Bien Morena,” he made astonishingly facile use of a cowbell.

Gene Burkert lends an ethnic touch with his flute solos, doubling adequately on tenor and alto sax. David Torrez’s most significant role at the piano is that of supplying hypnotic, repeated figures during the percussion interludes.

Although this may not be a seriously innovative idiom (one of the blues-like numbers was a ringer for “Fascinating Rhythm”), it does build enough rhythmic tension to maintain a generally engaging level of vitality and excitement.

Poncho Sanchez, Vine Street Bar and Grill, 1610 Vine St., Hollywood, (213) 463-4375, through Sunday.