After the biting wind and dumps of snow last week, Marco Castillo’s warm and sunny Latin vibes should be a welcome relief when he performs for the next installment of the Home Routes tour on Oct. 25.
Castillo’s music is an effortless blend of Latin and Brazilian samba and bossa nova with American jazz and funk influences, a unique sound among Home Route’s folk inclinations, largely incubated in Brazil’s capital of Rio de Janeiro, a cultural hotbed of local and foreign influences.
Music has been a part of Castillo’s life as long as he can remember: his father, Antonio Santos Cuhna, had been the guitarist in the Brazilian ensemble Trio Irakitan, and recorded with the likes of artists like American jazz legend Nat King Cole. Castillo’s roots are found in Brazil, but he notes his musical awakening came while his family was living in Guatemala: “That time was when I had started playing and listening to music, back in the 70s,” he noted. “There was a lot of Santana on the radio, and that was my first musical influence.”
Castillo often sat in while his sister practised with her garage band, slowly picking up melodies and chords, beginning with the simple, two-chord progression of Santana’s classic “Oye Como Va.” When Castillo moved back to Brazil in 1976, he was introduced to a new world of music, where international influences and an explosion of genres lead to a new wave of experimentation in the South American scene. “The 70s was a time of fusion,” he recalled, “when jazz and rock were getting together. At the same time we were hearing Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, we were hearing Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.”
Arriving in Canada in 2006, Castillo moved to Winnipeg on the good word of family who had been settled in the city for years. While his wife had some reservations about the climate, he notes that settling into Winnipeg was all too easy, having as it does a high population of recent arrivals. Musically, it was no different. Winnipeg may not be the first city to come to mind when one pictures a jazz scene; nonetheless, Castillo says he was right at home, shortly landing his first gig at the Pyramid, as part of his sister’s belly-dancing performance.
“She introduced me to a percussionist, and through him I met a bass player,” he explains. “At the same time I was trying to connect with people through the Internet, and I responded to an email from a drummer, and he introduced me to more people. In one week I had a six-piece band.”
The Winnipeg Jazz Festival also proved invaluable in Castillo’s first year, where his reputation already preceded him among the likes of individuals like jazz bassist Steve Kirby, currently the head of the University of Manitoba’s jazz studies program. Here, Castillo found a plethora of like-minded musicians intrigued by his international background, and Castillo has been performing at the festival for nine years since. By 2008, Castillo was already recording his first CD, featuring a team of 16 musicians.
As his music is in Spanish, Castillo has been working to translate some of his music in a meaningful way. “I’m not doing verses, as it will lose a lot of the poetry and the imagery, but in a way that people will know what I’m talking about.” Castillo notes that the genres he engages in often focus on passion and romance; however, he also sings about the social issues that surround his home country of Brazil as well.
Unlike many of the artists that have come through Thompson recently, this is Castillo’s first run on the Home Routes circuit; However, it’s not his first time in Thompson: those who showed up early to this year’s Canada Day celebrations would have heard his jazz and Latin vibes once before already.
The concert will be hosted at 91 Parkway Cres. at 7 p.m. Admission is $20 and all proceeds go towards the performing artist.
