The Imani Winds performance at the Seaport Museum last night was an experience. This group merges classical talent with sass for a really fun performance. Their relaxed attitude was very refreshing. Valerie Coleman, the flautist, spoke freestyle to the audience as if it were a private performance, and all the musicians laughed and joked amongst themselves and with the audience. Horn player Jeff Scott even gallantly demonstrated different rhythms for us so that we could understand the process of composition.
Each piece was very well done (these musicians are clearly gifted), but the culmination was Coleman's Afro-Cuban composition. Nobody could sit still during the piece - the body just had to move to the rhythm. I honestly couldn't believe people weren't dancing in the aisles.
Although the focus of the performance was the music, attention must be paid to the absolutely stunning attire of the Imani women. I don't know if they have their dresses made just for them, but they looked as if they couldn't have been more perfectly tailored, and they were gorgeous. I practically salivated at Clarinetist Mariam Adam's scarlet number with canary yellow hemline. Poor Jeff was overshadowed in his ordinary tux, because not only do these women have talent, but they have style.
