Adrian Quesada

Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Adrian Quesada built his career across multiple Grammy-winning outfits, including Grupo Fantasma and Black Pumas, while also pursuing side projects that range from the high-energy funk covers of Brownout to the expansive twangling Texas psychedelia of Echocentrics. At the same time he has focused on safeguarding varied traditions of Latin music. His 2021 album Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul honored little-known 1960s soul acts, and 2022’s Boleros Psicodelicos refreshed romantic ballads from the ’70s and ’80s. Across every ensemble and genre, Quesada’s guitar tone carries a sharp edge and his productions favor the directness of roots styles, yet he consistently pushes boundaries. Those traits have earned him recognition and drawn fellow musicians to his sessions in large numbers, as evidenced by the all-star 2022 instrumental hip-hop-funk release Jaguar Sound.

Raised in Laredo, Texas, Quesada developed an early passion for hip-hop and began playing guitar at thirteen. After finishing high school he relocated to Austin to study at the University of Texas, where he joined several local groups. Following graduation he co-founded Grupo Fantasma alongside other musicians from Laredo; the band blended cumbia and other traditional Latin forms with a contemporary funk sensibility. They quickly became regional standouts, gaining wider attention when Prince attended a performance and subsequently booked them for shows in Las Vegas and on his tour. The group issued numerous recordings during the 2000s, with 2010’s El Existential earning a Grammy for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. During the same period Quesada and several bandmates launched Brownout, a looser funk collective devoted to covers; their catalog includes 2014’s Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath, a Black Sabbath tribute, and 2018’s Fear of a Brown Planet, which reinterpreted Public Enemy material. Additional projects included the space-jazz collective Ocote Soul Sounds and the psychedelic rock outfit Echocentrics.

After leaving Grupo Fantasma in 2013, Quesada conceived a project devoted to reinterpreting classic soul sounds and, in 2017, formed Black Pumas with vocalist Eric Burton. The duo’s self-titled 2019 debut received a Grammy nomination, as did the 2020 live set Capitol Cuts: Live from Studio A. While operating his Electric Deluxe Recorders studio and mentoring emerging artists across genres, including his longstanding interest in hip-hop, Quesada assembled Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul, a collection of meticulously reconstructed 1960s Latin soul tracks featuring vocalists David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Tomar Williams, and Ruben Ramos. In a parallel effort, his 2022 album Boleros Psicodelicos revisited the romantic baladas of the ’70s and ’80s with contributions from Girl Ultra, Rudy De Anda, Gaby Moreno, and iLe of Calle 13. The record’s promotion included appearances on Late Night with Stephen Colbert, at the Austin City Limits Festival, and at a Kennedy Center celebration of Latin music and culture. Later that year Quesada returned to his hip-hop origins with Jaguar Sound, an album sparked by bicycle rides through Austin during the early COVID-19 lockdowns while listening to artists such as the Alchemist. Those rides inspired beats that evolved into psychedelic funk arrangements realized with Ikere Shakedown, keyboardist Josh Garza, harpist Mary Lattimore, and additional string and horn players. Anti- released the album in November 2022.