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.