RICARDO GALLO
BRINGS
TOGETHER
MUSICIANS FROM BOGOTÁ AND NYC
BRINGS
TOGETHER
MUSICIANS FROM BOGOTÁ AND NYC
Thursday,
June 5, 2025
Doors: 6:30pm
Event: 7pm
with:
Holman Álvarez
Dan Blake
Alejandro Florez
Ricardo Gallo
Brandon López
Maria Angélica Valencia
Fátima Vélez
Limited capacity
June 5, 2025
Doors: 6:30pm
Event: 7pm
with:
Holman Álvarez
Dan Blake
Alejandro Florez
Ricardo Gallo
Brandon López
Maria Angélica Valencia
Fátima Vélez
Limited capacity
There is a special place, in the Chapinero district of Bogotá, Colombia, called Matik Matik. There's a bright red bar top, a few cafe tables, and a small stage for concerts of experimental music of all types. It's the kind of place where musicians gather to meet and listen to other musicians.
Other cities have places like this—Cafe Oto in London, The Lab in San Francisco, KM28 in Berlin, Cave 12 in Geneva, among many others—and each one not only provides a home for new approaches to music but also anchors and holds a community together.
Other cities have places like this—Cafe Oto in London, The Lab in San Francisco, KM28 in Berlin, Cave 12 in Geneva, among many others—and each one not only provides a home for new approaches to music but also anchors and holds a community together.
The Colombian pianist and composer Ricardo Gallo has played at Matik Matik many times. He not only knows its community well but he also appreciates the musical sensibility it fosters—a curiosity for the music of Colombia’s diverse regions heard through the filter of a noisy and chaotic city like Bogotá.
But Ricardo has been living in NYC for years and developed close ties to the local scene as well. For this event, Ricardo invites musicians from Bogotá who have developed musical relationships with musicians from NYC. Together, they position GPS as being one of those places that nurtures conversation and collaboration with and around new music.
Ricardo curates two sets of improvised music that bridge the music of Bogotá and NYC:
The first set is Dan Blake on saxophone, Alejandro Florez on guitar, and Ricardo himself on piano and flute, and poet Fátima Vélez as special guest.
The second set is Holman Álvarez on piano, Brandon López on bass, and Maria Angélica Valencia on saxophone/clarinet.
But Ricardo has been living in NYC for years and developed close ties to the local scene as well. For this event, Ricardo invites musicians from Bogotá who have developed musical relationships with musicians from NYC. Together, they position GPS as being one of those places that nurtures conversation and collaboration with and around new music.
Ricardo curates two sets of improvised music that bridge the music of Bogotá and NYC:
The first set is Dan Blake on saxophone, Alejandro Florez on guitar, and Ricardo himself on piano and flute, and poet Fátima Vélez as special guest.
The second set is Holman Álvarez on piano, Brandon López on bass, and Maria Angélica Valencia on saxophone/clarinet.
Ricardo Gallo outside Matik Matik, Bogotá, Colombia
Ricardo Gallo (b. 1978, Colombia) is a pianist and composer who has written for acoustic and electro-acoustic formats, short films, videos, dance, installations, multimedia stage productions, and has performed and written for jazz and improvisatory groups. His current projects as performer/composer include his Bogotá-based quartet, NYC-based electric-tropical band Los Aliens, acoustic quartet “Horse’s Mouth” and an ongoing collaboration with poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña. He lives in New York.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Blake has developed a wide-ranging career as a contemporary composer, performer and educator that “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure” (The Boston Globe).
Alejandro Florez’s original music is filled with allusions to the sounds of his native Colombia, but his close contact with contemporary improvisation and new music brings in an honest infusion of abstraction. The result is a complex sonic tapestry that is expansive and visceral, intricate and at times frenetic, lyrical and surprising.
Fátima Vélez is a writer, professor, cultural producer, and Ph.D. candidate in Hispano-American Literature and Cultures at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Fátima's main interests include contemporary Latin American Literature and Culture, focusing on decolonial feminism, ecofeminism, queer/cuir theories, critical geography, and Civil Rights movements and activism.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Blake has developed a wide-ranging career as a contemporary composer, performer and educator that “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure” (The Boston Globe).
Alejandro Florez’s original music is filled with allusions to the sounds of his native Colombia, but his close contact with contemporary improvisation and new music brings in an honest infusion of abstraction. The result is a complex sonic tapestry that is expansive and visceral, intricate and at times frenetic, lyrical and surprising.
Fátima Vélez is a writer, professor, cultural producer, and Ph.D. candidate in Hispano-American Literature and Cultures at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Fátima's main interests include contemporary Latin American Literature and Culture, focusing on decolonial feminism, ecofeminism, queer/cuir theories, critical geography, and Civil Rights movements and activism.
Holman Álvarez is a Colombian pianist and composer whose music weaves together jazz, Latin American traditions, and contemporary experimentation. He collaborates across genres and disciplines, creating dynamic works where contrast, coexistence, and juxtaposition shape the musical narrative. He lives in New York.
Brandon López is a bassist and composer. His work deals with improvisation, finding new sonic possibilities on the double bass. He lives in New York.
Maria Angélica Valencia is a Colombian Saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser, composer and eventually percussionist. Currently her services as a performer are required by Hurakán Orkan, Oláceas, Trío Lesión Meridian Brothers, MULA, and several others.
Brandon López is a bassist and composer. His work deals with improvisation, finding new sonic possibilities on the double bass. He lives in New York.
Maria Angélica Valencia is a Colombian Saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser, composer and eventually percussionist. Currently her services as a performer are required by Hurakán Orkan, Oláceas, Trío Lesión Meridian Brothers, MULA, and several others.
Due to the age and character of the building, the space is not optimized for ADA accessibility and is located up a single flight of 20 stairs with handrails. If you have questions about access, please contact us in advance of the event, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
