YURGAKI

Nicolás Cristancho -Yurgaki- is part of the New Colombian Music movement.
Composer and multi-instrumentalist, specialized in Jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. Sound designer in theater and performing arts. He also explores the traditional sounds of the Colombian coasts and Cuban music.

Born into a musical family, Nicolás is the son of percussionist Bertha Quintero, a renowned conga player and founder of Colombia’s first female salsa orchestra. His initial exposure to music occurred early at home during his mother’s orchestra rehearsals. Inspired by this environment, he soon decided to pursue music professionally, subsequently studying jazz at Universidad Javeriana. His initial albums, Ojo X Diente and Gozación Espiral, explored Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Latin funk, and timba, enriched by jazz aesthetics and harmonic innovation. In 1999, he left Colombia to Cuba where he studied sight-reading and composition with teachers Elvira Fuentes and Tulio Peramo. He gained his double degree in jazz piano at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and later at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catauña, Spain. In Barcelona he also reconnected with his father, who is also a musician – Macabí.

Yurgaki is a musical project founded in 2005 in Bogotá, Colombia. Nicolás Yurgaki bears the surname in a Lebanese-Syrian immigrant who came to the coasts of the North Pacific in Colombia at the beginning of the 20th century trying to make his fortune during the gold and platinum fever. Carried away by his own aims, Yurgaki will then desappear, leaving a child behind, Nico’s great-grandfather.

Yurgaki’s music blends sounds of the Colombian Caribbean and the Pacific Coast with contemporary and urban expressions from other countries, taking the language of Jazz. While researching for a new sound, he brings together music with different origin, in a constant dynamism – the same that defines the transition of identity in such a diverse territory like Colombia, in constant migration.

Yurgaki’s music represents a vibrant intersection between Afro-Caribbean roots and contemporary jazz, delving into their shared origins while exploring rhythmic language, syncopation, clave patterns, and harmony. This fusion highlights the rich diversity of Latin American Jazz, celebrating spontaneity, experimentation, and the pure joy of musical expression and audience connection.

The sonic journey of Yurgaki begins with foundational rhythms from the Colombian Pacific and Caribbean regions, including styles such as Cumbia, Currulao, and Porro. These traditional rhythms blend seamlessly with elements borrowed from other influential musical traditions, like Cuban rumba, Brazilian Choro, and Uruguayan candombe. The ensemble presents this vibrant mix through the refined aesthetic of a jazz trio, further enriched by Latin percussion. This approach actively challenges and redefines the clichés typically associated with Latin jazz, specifically emphasizing innovative asymmetrical rhythms. Additionally, Yurgaki integrates inspirations from Mediterranean and diverse global musical cultures, enhancing the inherent cultural diversity of the Caribbean sound.

While Germany’s jazz scene has recently seen significant growth in contemporary expressions, Yurgaki aims to create a compelling dialogue between Latin America’s musical wealth and modern jazz aesthetics. Through this synthesis, the ensemble offers audiences an irresistibly vibrant and engaging musical experience.

His music has a personal thumbprint, in its multicultural richness, recognized in his productions: “Tres Nuevas formas de Respirar Bajo el Agua” and “Pacífico”.