Meandering majestic rivers in lowland plains, ‘llanos’, tend to produce great music: Zumbao come from a land of hawks, horses and bulls, where feverish harp, guitar, cuatro and percussion enliven fiestas. ‘Joropo’ is the dazzling, high-energy music of the Eastern reaches of the Orinoco valley, where Colombia borders Venezuela. This quartet have known each other from a very young age and are all from musical dynasties, highly educated in their art. Now based in Bogota, young Berklee clarinet scholar Juan Diego Panadero, of similar music pedigree, joins them from the US. Theirs is a polished, upbeat, mostly instrumental ‘música llanera’ featuring elements of jazz, rock, Colombian bambuco rhythms, through which the crazy lament of the clarinet winds its way. Their album ‘Ultrainstinto’ is out in May, the fruit of years of pushing limits and refining to achieve a state of 'musical ecstasy'.

The Zumbao players studied in specialist schools dedicated to llanera music, run by top musicians who’d moved to the capital. Zahira Noguera, a young and well-known cuatro player who plays magical solos met harpist Elvis Díaz, when she was 13 and he was 11. His grandfather played maracas with the famous Colombian singer Luis Ariel Rey, and his father was a music lover with a huge collection of Presley albums. Zahira accompanied Elvis in his first presentations, when the youngster revealed an enormous talent that has grown with his capacity to decorate his solos with jaw-dropping improvisation. Elvis and Zahira met bass player Ivan Vacca at their music school when was 15. He brings a contemporary element to the band, such a big part of their musical personality. The three musicians then met percussionist Sebastian Bermejo, whose highly technical craziness enables these simple seed pod rattles to create a percussive magic. The newest member of the band, Juan Diego Panadero, is the son of one of Colombia’s top clarinet players, currently at the Berklee College of Music in the U.S.

The church is a short walk from Rotherhithe Overground Station on the Windrush line.  There will be a cash bar. 

Wheelchair access is possible via the adjacent church hall.