MESTIZX (NL/US/BO)

The first appearance in Finland of Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti, a musician, composer and multimedia artist born in Bolivia, will take place on Thursday at the Jazz Happening’s free Netherjazz theme event featuring three ‘Dutch’ ensembles. On Friday, she will bring out her other project band at the newly refurbished Tullikamari. This performance that is also the last act of the day will quite possibly be the highlight of the evening.

The ensemble derives its name, the gender-neutral word Mestizx, from the Spanish colonial term mestizo, which naturally is no coincidence. Both Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (b. 1979) and her partner, drummer-composer Frank Rosaly (b. 1974), feel like outsiders left between cultures and identities. Guardia Ferragutti grew up in Portuguese-speaking Brazil, while Rosaly is the offspring of Caribbean and Spanish-speaking immigrants born in Phoenix, Arizona. Today, their shared home is in Amsterdam.

The multi-stylistic and “decolonised” rhythm music of Mestizx, a band that has released two albums, is therefore autobiographical and deeply personal from the outset, while for those familiar with the musicians’ backgrounds it also carries strong social and political resonance.

At their debut performance at Tampere Jazz Happening, fresh new layers are added to the music. At Tullikamari, Ferragutti and Rosaly will perform pieces from their 35-minute EP, released in mid-October, which centres on Caribbean cultures. These are also referenced in the record’s title, O, which means “mountain” in Taíno, an Indigenous language that is now extinct.

The duo is joined to form a trio by the American multi-instrumentalist Ben Boye, who has appeared on nearly a hundred albums. He also shares a recording history with Rosaly through the band Natural Information Society.