There was no escaping the clave on North Beach on Saturday night: that uh-uh-uh, uh-uh beat that drives Afro-Cuban music. Somewhere around 9pm it seemed like the whole north end of the island might rise right off it’s dredged up perch and dance into the sea. At the Byron Carlyle, timba band Tiempo Libre was shaking up the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with some funky bass, jazz riffs on sax and trumpet, and the amazing octopus antics of Armando (Pututi) Arce who somehow played a standard drum kit, timbales, and the clave all at the same time. Keyboardist and musical director Jorge Gomez kept exhorting the crowd to get up and dance, but something about the plush seats and the fugue beats kept pulling us back down. Tiempo Libre has achieved a level of prestige, playing toney venues across the United States with a bit of a museum piece air of propriety. There’s no doubt that all of these musicians could play as hot as they want to, whenever they want to, but that’s not what they’re about. The audience is more likely to gasp at their virtuosity than to shake our booties.

That’s why it’s a good thing that stepping out of the Byron Carlyle at the end of the show we could hear Conjunto Progreso wrapping up this weekend’s 12th annual Afro Roots Festival, pulling my dance partner and me toward the North Beach Band Shell like heat-seeking missiles. As we got closer, band leader (oops, band leader is Johnny Aguiló) and festival founder Jose Elias caressed our ears with his beautiful arpeggios on the strings of his tres, while Michel Fragoso burned up the keyboard. We made our way in front of the bandshell stage just in time to see Philbert Armenteros join the group to lead the crowd through a series of prayer songs for the goddess of love, Ochun.

There could be no sweeter journey than to go from the heavenly strains of Bach to the deep funk of Afro Roots. Alabao!