Monsieur Perine at Kuumbwa Jazz Center

Straight out of Columbia, Monsieur Periné won Best New Artist category at the Latin Grammy Awards for 2015. That same year, their sophomore recording Caja de Musica was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Latin Album/Alternative Rock. Based in Bogotá, the band plays a Latin American twenty-first century version of the gypsy jazz popularized by the great Django Reinhardt. But their utilization of bolero, cumbia, tango, sôn and samba extend the group’s rhythmic base beyond the steady 4/4 of Django’s era, adding more varieties of spice to the sonic entree. The group began in 2007 and went through a number of personnel changes before settling on the current lineup featuring the airy, sunny vocals of lead singer Catalina Garcia with guitarist/violinist Santiago Prieto, guitarist Nicolas Junca, bassist Adinda Meertins, drummer Darwin Paez, percussionist Miguel Guerra, saxophonist/clarinetist Jairo Alfonso, and Abstin Caviedes on trombone and bugle...

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Straight out of Columbia, Monsieur Periné won Best New Artist category at the Latin Grammy Awards for 2015. That same year, their sophomore recording Caja de Musica was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Latin Album/Alternative Rock. Based in Bogotá, the band plays a Latin American twenty-first century version of the gypsy jazz popularized by the great Django Reinhardt. But their utilization of bolero, cumbia, tango, sôn and samba extend the group’s rhythmic base beyond the steady 4/4 of Django’s era, adding more varieties of spice to the sonic entree. The group began in 2007 and went through a number of personnel changes before settling on the current lineup featuring the airy, sunny vocals of lead singer Catalina Garcia with guitarist/violinist Santiago Prieto, guitarist Nicolas Junca, bassist Adinda Meertins, drummer Darwin Paez, percussionist Miguel Guerra, saxophonist/clarinetist Jairo Alfonso, and Abstin Caviedes on trombone and bugle. From the beginning they experimented with a variety of styles for their 2009 album debut Handmade and continued to refine that approach on Caja de Musica (Music Box). Currently riding the momentum from their high profile Latin Grammy win, the band is extensively touring in the United States this year. L.A. Weekly praised them with the following: ” surprised us this year, flipping the script with music inspired by French jazz, swing, and Colombian folk.”

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