Loca’s Lemvo Plays With Restrained Joy

There was a persistent feeling Friday in the Conga Room that Ricardo Lemvo was holding himself back during the first of two sets he performed with his band Makina Loca.

Add a beloved classic to the program, however, and the spice quotient is likely to increase--which is what happened when the octet performed a torrid version of Silvestre Mendez’s “Yiri Yiri Bon.”

The concert was meant to showcase Lemvo’s new second album, the gorgeous “Mambo Yoyo,” in which the Congolese native takes one step forward with his trademark fusion of Cuban-tinged salsa and the sinuous, dancing guitar lines of Central African pop. There’s a lot of joy in Makina Loca’s music, and not without reason. Lemvo goes through the liberating emotional experience of embracing the Afro-Cuban music of his enslaved ancestors.

If he allows himself to loosen up as a performer and succumb to the rapture of the music, he and his band could shine as brightly as the classic Cuban orchestras he so admires.