Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet: ‘El Muki’

The remarkable new album from the Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet starts and finishes strong - from the title track ‘El Muki’ to their interpretation of Sting’s ‘Walking on the Moon’ this is an album that takes the listener through modern jazz that fuses traditional music and modern jazz.

With a regular weekly residency at Lima’s Jazz Zone, this group is celebrating its 20th anniversary of consistently breaking new ground with El Muki.

Led by Gabriel Alegría (trumpet), the sextet also includes Laura Andrea Leguía (tenor sax), Hugo Alcázar (drums), Mario Cuba (bass), Freddy “Huevito” Lobatón (percussion), Jocho Velásquez (guitar) and JF Maza (sax).

The album’s title refers to a mythological Andean figure said to protect miners in the Peruvian highlands and the extension of that is the ensemble’s protection of real music, played by real people on real instruments. El Muki takes the original compositions and runs away with them with a considered joy. With some tracks composed by Alegria (who also arranges the Sting track) and some by Leguía, there is a blend of traditional instruments such as cajón, cajita, and quijada with the more familiar jazz voicings.

There is nothing apologetic about any of these tracks and Leguia’s fierce sax playing is matched by her writing. Tracks like Vista Panorámica (Bird’s Eye View) is both beautiful and disturbing - 5/4 will do that - and the sextet lilts through the rhythmic maze with dexterity. She says: “Motherhood changed everything - including the way I hear music. Coming back to composition for this album felt like reclaiming a part of myself.”

Alegria says of this spectacular album: "El Muki is about resistance and hope It’s a reminder that music is most powerful when it speaks from lived experience—when it comes from a place of humanity.”