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Ricardo Gallo

Colombian pianist and composer Ricardo Gallo has written for acoustic and electro-acoustic formats, for short films, videos, dance, installations and multimedia stage productions, and has performed and

written for improvisatory groups. He has published twelve albums as a leader, his music has appeared

in several compilations in Colombia, USA, and Europe, and has participated in recordings of several

other groups.

Among his main projects is the quartet he leads since 2005 with some of the best musicians from

Bogotá’s scene: drummer Jorge Sepúlveda, bassist Juan Manuel Toro, and percussionist Juan David

Castaño, developing repertoire and an improvisational approach that integrates an avant-garde and free

language with rhythmic and melodic elements from folkloric musical traditions. Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto

has released six albums: Los Cerros Testigos (2005), Urdimbres y Marañas (2007), Resistencias (2010),

Tribu del Asfalto (2013), En Tránsito (2018) and Novara 2012 (2022).

In New York he has led the group Tierra de Nadie, with seasoned musicians such as trombonist Ray

Anderson, saxophonist Dan Blake, bassist Mark Helias, and percussionists Pheeroan akLaff and Satoshi

Takeishi. With this project, he released the album The Great Fine Line in 2010 under the portuguese

label Clean Feed Records.

Two notable ongoing duos are his long-lasting project with guitarist Alejandro Flórez, publishing in

2009 the album Meleyolamente as a debut for the label Festina Lente Discos, and Algo Más Melódico

in 2019 with the same label. With singer Juanita Delgado they published independently Canciones

internas y de otras partes in 2016.

Gallo has collaborated with Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña, performing as duo in the U.S. and

Chile, creating the sound design for “Disappeared Quipu”, a multimedia installation for the Brooklyn

Museum and MFA in Boston, composing a piece based on her poetry commissioned by Ensemble Ipse,

as well as other sound pieces for the Gwangju Biennale in Korea and Ballroom Marfa in Texas.

With the multimedia group La Quinta del Lobo he has participated as composer and performer on piano,

keyboards and electronics on two large scale stage pieces: Vanitas Libellum and Cuentos de la

Mangleria, performing in several theaters in Colombia as well as in Peru, Hong Kong and U.S.A.

Gallo has participated in projects led by Ray Anderson, Peter Evans (Live in Lisbon), Santiago Botero

(MULA, El Ombligo), Edson Velandia (Bin Ban, Aputoi), Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), Andrés Jiménez

(Dilemastronauta) Lukas Ligeti (notebook) among others.

He has performed his own music in Peru, Puerto Rico, Canada, Kenya, China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain,

Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto: Udimbres y Maranas

by James Nichols
May 9, 2008

Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto Udimbres y Maranas La Distritofonica 2008

The Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto's sound is complex--and not just because the Cuarteto is born out of a marriage between avant-garde jazz and Colombian rhythms. What adds further depth to their music is the emotional density that shows itself almost immediately on Urdimbres y Maranas...

The opening “Tablitas" starts with a bass growl that climbs through the registers and exhausts itself at the top ...

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Album Review

Ricardo Gallo: Urdimbres Y Maranas

Read "Urdimbres Y Maranas" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
April 9, 2008

Urdimbres Y Maranas (literally, fabric and tangles) is the second release by the Colombian pianist Ricardo Gallo and his quartet, the first being Los Cerros Testigos (Chonta, 2006). The aim of their music is the same: to blend traditional Colombian music, especially its rhythms, with the freedom of the American jazz aesthetic. The former album was full of energy and high spirits with the tracks gloriously exposing the clash of the two differing musical mindsets.

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Album Review

Ricardo Gallo: Los Cerros Testigos

Read "Los Cerros Testigos" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
May 30, 2006

Living in New York City, one can sometimes take the presence of so much local musicianship and creativity for granted. Ricardo Gallo's Los Cerros Testigos is, therefore, a strong reminder that great music is happening all over the world. Here we have another example of what a fusion of different music with jazz really means: the creation of something new that no longer belongs to its original world (Colombia) and yet still maintains some of its recognizable characteristics (rhythms and ...

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Recording

Pianist Ricardo Gallo's Tierra de Nadie: The Great Fine Line

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
April 22, 2011

Some free improv dates are neither here nor there. Ricardo Gallo's The Great Fine Line (Clean Feed 209) manages to avoid that. It's here. By that I mean it has an immediacy. The composed sections structure the freedom in ways that bop heads frame the improvisations. Only this is not bop derived in any palpable way. But like for example one of those Sonny Simmons ESP dates from the '60s, there is the framework of the melodic head routines and ...
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“Colombian born, Ricardo Gallo has been making waves on the American scene for a few years now (…)

His most exciting recordings for me have been with his formidable quartet (…) Gallo has well rounded

and enterprising style that sizzles with each album he produces. While mixing avant garde tendencies

and Latin American influences may sound frightening to the uninitiated, you may be very surprised by

the results (…) “Resistencias” [the third album by the quartet] states that Ricardo Gallo is an emerging

artist/composer that should not be overlooked. This is one of the best Ricardo Gallo albums to date.” Stephen Moore for U.S. site JazzWrap