Andrés Prado

GIG: Peruvian jazz guitarist and leader of the Andrés Prado Quintet, a locally based band that has raised plenty of eyebrows for its explosive, Latin-tinged approach to contemporary jazz. Prado is one of those rare players who combines technical virtuosity with passionate phrasing and eclectic source material. He also has a knack for recruiting some of the area’s best musicians—such as Peter Schimke (piano), Pete Whitman (sax), and Kevin Washington (drums)—to play with him.

GREW UP: Lima, Peru

ON MOVING TO THE TWIN CITIES: “I moved from London to the Twin Cities because I signed a contract with an independent record label, RPM Records, and because I wanted to try America. Before coming here, I was playing and teaching in London. I’m currently teaching at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul.”

CHILDHOOD: “I grew up in an intellectual and musical family. My father is a professor of philosophy at San Marcos University [in Lima], and my mother is a classical pianist.”

ON PLAYING THE GUITAR: “I started playing the classical guitar when I was ten years old. My attraction to the guitar was very natural, not like the other instruments I tried when I was a little boy. I tried the piano, violin, flute, and indigenous instruments from my country like the zikus, charango, and quena, but none of them spoke to me like the guitar.”

EARLY MUSICAL INFLUENCES: “My early musical influences were my grandmother (she was also a pianist), my mother, and the musical traditions from my culture. I started to play jazz seriously when I was seventeen, but not only jazz, other musical styles as well. I also started to compose a lot of music at the same time, for different musical ensembles.”

ON THE LOCAL JAZZ SCENE: “There are fantastic musicians in the local jazz scene, and some of them are currently playing in my band.”

CURRENT PROJECT: “I’m writing a symphony called Symphony for the Unification of the Latino American Countries, and I want to present it next year in Lima, Peru, with the Peruvian Symphony Orchestra.”

MUSIC HE LISTENS TO NOW: “I am listening a lot to my two-year-old son playing the flute and percussion. My favorite CD at the moment is Arasijie Iñono, a collection of indigenous shamanic chants from the Amazon jungle of Peru. I am not only a jazz musician. I am always interested in learning and playing different kinds of musical expressions and traditions, and my own music is the result of this mixture."
 
CATCH HIS ACT: July 26. Dakota Jazz Club, 1010 Nicollet Ave., Mpls., 612-332-1010.