Bongos tap Cuban rhythms

Friday, March 17, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

Rumba, mambo ... and a little Bach.

Bongo legend Rogelio Darias will bring his Cuban rhythms to Winchester Cultural Center for a special performance on Saturday.

The show, part of the World Vibration music series, will feature authentic Cuban music, including new arrangements of classical music that incorporate traditional Latin rhythms performed by Darias and his band, Darias de Cuba.

The longtime Las Vegan, now in his 90s, worked as a drummer at the Tropicana nightclub in Havana and introduced the bongo and other percussive music to Las Vegas orchestras in the 1960s. He's been performing here since.

"When I retire it's because I die," Darias said Thursday via telephone.

And you might as well forget his age. Despite the way he shuffles slowly across the floor, Darias plays as if he's a different man, said Irma Wynants, cultural supervisor for the Winchester.

"He gets behind the instruments and he has so much energy," Wynants said. "It's incredible. You think it's somebody else."

Wynants started the World Vibrations series in July as a way to showcase various cultures and musical traditions. The series has presented sitar players, musicians from New Zealand, Japan, Ecuador and Hawaii. Next month Bulgarian music will be featured.

Wynants said Las Vegas' "richness of talent and diversity" has allowed the series to flourish.

"This gives such an opportunity for people to come close and get to know each other," Wynants said. "The important thing is that they're local musicians."

Winchester Cultural Center is located at 3130 S. McLeod Drive, between Sahara Avenue and Desert Inn Road. Tickets to Saturday's performance are $10; $7 for children and seniors. For information, call 455-7340.

Limited seating

It's one thing to bring a Southern California minimalist exhibit to town, especially one that highlights all of the big artists. It's another to actually bring in one of the artists.

Robert Irwin, installation artist and one of the creators of the art of light and space movement, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Las Vegas Art Museum, 9600 W. Sahara Ave.

Three of Irwin's early works included in LVAM's "Southern California Minimalism Exhibit," on display through May 21, are "Column," "Matinee Idol" and an untitled work.

Having Irwin speak is an honor for the museum, said Libby Lumpkin, consulting executive director.

Irwin began his career as an abstract expressionist painter before becoming a key player in the California light and space art movement in the 1960s.

His lecture, "On the Nature of Abstraction," is the first of a series of lectures the museum hopes to offer.

In June, Gail Levin, former curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and an authority on Edward Hopper, will be speaking at the museum in conjunction with an exhibit by actor Martin Mull.

Other artists featured in the "Southern California Minimalism Exhibit" include Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Judy Chicago, Ron Davis, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken and James Turrell.

Tickets for Irwin's lecture are $7. Seating is limited and reservations are required. For information, call 360-8000.