Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto nominated for Latin Grammy award for best folk album 2020!

Bogota, Columbia

Cumbia roots group Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto has been nominated for a Latin Grammy award for Best Folk Album 2020!

For Colombia-centric label, Llorona Records, this will be their second nomination for Best Folk Album two years running, with De mar y río de canalón de timbiquí nominated in 2019. Produced by Diego Gómez and mastered by Frank Merritt, Toño García: el último cacique pays homage to San Jacinto’s most esteemed gaita flute player and living cumbia legend Manuel Antonio “Toño” García.

Recorded in Bogota’s Audiovision studios, the album’s line-up saw featured some of San Jacinto’s cumbia royalty including gaitero Damian Bossio, drummers Wilson Fontalvo and Beto Cartagena, Yeison Landero, the grandson of cumbia legend Andrés Landero and musical maestro Elber Álvarez. The 18 tracks on the album share with us the original sound of cumbia with its lilting melodies on the gaita flute weaving in and out of the ‘llamador’ drum and ‘campesino’ narratives.

Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto are no strangers to the Latin Grammys, having won in the same category back in 2007 for their album Un fuego de sangre pura. Hailed as guardians of the centuries-old gaitero tradition from Los Montes de María, they have exported cumbia roots music around the world and today their sound is stronger than ever.

Listen to the album Toño García: el último cacique on Bandcamp.