Album Notes

Alcatraz’s debut release combines the spirited sounds of the soul, warmth, and tradition of the Peruvian coast with the restless creativity of New York City. Many of the songs on the album are fresh versions of the most recognized Afro-Peruvian songs like “El Mayoral”, “Cardo o Ceniza” and “Se Me Van Los Pies”. Alcatraz draws upon influences of traditional Peruvian ensembles and artists from the earliest recordings to the present, including Carlos Hayre, Teatro del Milenio, Peru Negro and Susana Baca, fusing these elements to arrive at an original interpretation that speaks to the tradition and yet resonates in the present day.

The thrilling live performance that Alcatraz delivers blurs the distinction between performer and audience as well as that between concert and party. Every member of the band can be heard singing background vocals and playing the unique percussion instruments of Afro-Peru, including: cajón (Afro-Peruvian box drum), cajita (little box drum) and quijada (donkey’s jawbone used as a rasp). Inevitably the audience finds occasion to belt the backgrounds, sing along with the popular valses, join the percussion section with the traditional hand clapping parts, called palmas, and even get out of their seats to shake their hips. Owing to the infectious energy of the show, the music emanates not from the five individual band-members, but from a spirit and tradition common to them as well as all musicians, dancers, and audiences of costal Peruvian music.

About the band members Oscar Pasache, producer of this record comments: “It helps, of course, that the musicians in the band bring a vast array of musical experience to this endeavor. Between them, they have played and danced with Peru Negro, and performed musica criolla with the great Carlos Hayre; they have been songwriters and composers, and bandleaders in both Lima and New York. The list of places where they have played modern jazz stretches from Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center to Tonic, the Blue Note, the Knitting Factory, and the Jazz Gallery. They have also been active in Argentine and Colombian jazz bands. When they come together as a musical unit, they freely mix elements of disparate musical styles from all across both American continents and reveal these styles to be long-lost siblings, with common ancestry that goes back to Europe and Africa.”
Singer Sofia Koutsovitis is a specialist in the music of the South American continent, performing frequently with various folkloric Peruvian, Colombian, and Argentine bands in New York. She has performed in such venues as the Kennedy Center and the Blue Note and has been hailed by the great Luciana Souza as “wonderfully unique”.
Percussionist Marcos Napa, a native of Lima, has years of experience with the foremost ensembles in Afro-Peruvian music, playing first cajón for Peru Negro, and Eva Ayllón. A former dancer in Peru Negrito, Napa also performs and teaches Afro-Peruvian dance professionally and is featured dancing tap dancing on track 8.
Guitarist Eric Kurimski is the protégé of the great Peruvian guitarist Carlos Hayre. Owing to his studies and his extensive travels to Lima, Kurimski has become the most sought-after guitarist in peruvian music in New York.