SOTO · CUPICH · NANDAYAPA
Contemporary Jazz · Improvisation
A New Trio from Mexico
SOTO · CUPICH · NANDAYAPA is a new musical project bringing together three musicians with different backgrounds and complementary experiences.
The trio unites Catalan guitarist and composer Pere Soto with Mexican double bassist and composer Israel Cupich and drummer Gustavo Nandayapa.
It is conceived as a space for dialogue, interaction and improvisation, combining original compositions with the freedom to develop the music through the three musicians’ interplay.
Pere Soto & Gustavo Nandayapa
Pere Soto and Gustavo Nandayapa have worked together for many years across different projects and contexts. Their collaboration has moved through Gypsy Jazz, contemporary jazz and improvisational music, building a relationship based on listening, interaction and exploration.
Gustavo Nandayapa
Mexican drummer and percussionist originally from Chiapas, with training that includes the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. His work spans jazz, contemporary music, improvisation and traditional Mexican and other world-music traditions. He has also developed commissioned work for film and interdisciplinary projects.
Israel Cupich
Israel Cupich is a Mexican double bassist and composer, graduate of the Escuela Superior de Música del INBA and leader of several projects since 2005. His career includes work with numerous musicians from the Mexican jazz scene as well as international collaborations.
His discography as leader includes Israel Cupich Quinteto, Hecho en Casa, Blanch · Cupich · Nandayapa Trío and La Danza. In 2014 he founded the JazzMx collective.
Cupich has a long musical relationship with Gustavo Nandayapa. Together with pianist Roberto Blanco they formed the Blanch · Cupich · Nandayapa Trío in 2010. The group worked with original compositions and explored a broad range of resources, from traditional jazz to improvisation, metric modulation and irregular meters. They performed at the Festival Jazz-Mex in Mexico City and recorded their first album.
A New Musical Encounter
The meeting between Pere Soto and Israel Cupich is new. Unlike the long-standing relationship between Soto and Nandayapa, Soto and Cupich had never previously performed together.
This makes SOTO · CUPICH · NANDAYAPA a genuine new encounter rather than the continuation of an existing trio.
- Pere Soto — European and international experience as guitarist, composer and improviser.
- Israel Cupich — A major presence in the Mexican jazz scene, with extensive experience as double bassist, composer and leader.
- Gustavo Nandayapa — A long-time collaborator of Soto and an important figure in Mexican contemporary jazz and improvisational music.
The combination creates a new space in which these three identities meet for the first time.
Three Musicians · One Musical Dialogue
The trio is based on interaction rather than hierarchy. Guitar, double bass and drums create a compact acoustic format in which every instrument can take part in the development of the music.
Original compositions provide the starting point; improvisation allows the music to evolve in performance.
SOTO · CUPICH · NANDAYAPA is therefore conceived not simply as a conventional jazz trio, but as a meeting point between three musical trajectories.
Pere Soto · Guitar, Composer & Producer
Pere Soto is a Catalan guitarist, composer, arranger and producer born in Badalona, Spain. A self-taught musician, his career has developed across Europe, the United States and Mexico, in a language that moves between jazz, Gypsy Jazz, bebop, fusion, contemporary music and improvisation.
His first LP, Coincidencias (1989), was nominated Best Album of the Year by Nacional-Radio 4 in Spain. Later work includes Metanoic, recorded in Hilversum with the Bill Gerhardt Quartet, and Particular Vernacular, recorded in New York with Jeff Ballard, Ben Allison, Dave Douglas and Dave Liebman.
He has performed and recorded with musicians including John Engels, Han Bennink, Dave Douglas, Lou Donaldson, Perico Sambeat, Jeff Ballard, Ben Allison, Dave Liebman, Lonnie Smith and Big John Patton.
His work in Mexico began in 2000, with the world premiere of his String Quartet No. 2 by the Mexico City Quartet. Since then Mexico — and Oaxaca in particular — has been a central part of his life as performer, composer, educator and producer, with activity at venues and institutions such as Museo Tamayo, Biblioteca Henestrosa, Lunario of the Auditorio Nacional and the Puebla Symphony Orchestra.
His catalogue exceeds 1,000 works registered with SGAE. He also works as a producer through his own studio and as an author of books on guitar and jazz language.
His long-standing collaboration with Gustavo Nandayapa continues inside this trio. The meeting with Israel Cupich is the beginning of a new one.