Ricardo Gallo's Tierra de Nadie

Colombian pianist and composer Ricardo Gallo has published five albums under his name. He leads different projects that relate aspects of Colombian traditions to contemporary musical expressions, and performs with several improvisational groups.
His main projects are his quartet that he leads since 2004 in Bogota with some of the best musicians from Colombia’s scene: drummer Jorge Sepulveda, bassist Juan Manuel Toro, and percussionist Juan David Castano. With them he has developed original compositions and a way of improvising that integrates an avant-garde and free language with rhythmic and melodic elements from Colombian traditions. Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto has released three albums: “Los Cerros Testigos” (December, 2005), “Urdimbres y Maracas” (December, 2007), and “Resistencias” (October 2010), all of them with great critical acclaim both in his country and abroad. These three albums have been published under the catalogue of the musician’s collective “La Distritofonica”, from Bogota.

In New York he leads since 2007 the group Tierra de Nadie, with musicians such as trombonist Ray Anderson, saxophonist Dan Blake, bassist Mark Helias, and drummers Pheeroan akLaff and/or Satoshi Takeishi. This quintet/sextet performs compositions conceived as a sort of imaginary folklore, providing space for contributing musicians to inhabit freely. With this group he published the album “The Great Fine Line” in November 2010 under the portuguese label Clean Feed Records.

In New York he has performed his music in several formats including in addition to the aforementioned musicians: Jorge Roeder, Tom Blancarte, Tony Malaby, Sam Sadigursky, Martin Vejarano, Pedro Giraudo, etc. He has participated in groups led by Ray Anderson and has performed in Europe (Portugal and Austria) and New York with Peter Evans Quartet, which is documented in the recording “Live in Lisbon” (Clean Feed Records, 2010).

Official Website

LUCIA PULIDO is a Colombian singer with one of the richest voices on the international Latin American musical scene today. She has an experimental style marked by a distinct vocal sophistication, and has participated in various projects, ranging from traditional Colombian music to jazz and world music. The New York times says that, “Ms Pulido holds on to the rawness of the original melodies while giving them a sophisticated new context”. This richness can be seen in her different ensembles and repertoires.

Traditional genres such as cumbia and bullerengue from the Atlantic Coast, currulaos from the Pacific Coast as well as joropos from the Colombian Eastern Plains are the point of departure for her musical creativity. Lucía's vocal sophistication is enhanced in genres such as herding songs (cantos de vaquería), funeral laments (alabaos) and harvest chants (cantos de zafra), which give the singer the liberty to explore her voice fully.

Official Website