Chico Trujillo

Chile's Chico Trujillo ranks among the country's foremost cumbia ensembles. Their recordings weave strands of the genre's earlier eras together with outside currents that range from rock and ska through hip-hop, dubwise reggae, punk, bolero, and Latin R&B. The group's aesthetic draws heavily on pre-Pinochet cumbia traditions while absorbing nearly every strand of Chilean popular culture, a breadth already audible on the 2001 release Chico Trujillo y la Señora Imaginación. Although the musicians have maintained an almost uninterrupted touring schedule since 2002 and are best known for their concerts, the albums they issue at irregular intervals routinely earn both critical praise and strong sales. Their exuberant, irreverent, high-energy dance-party shows have appeared at Lollapalooza on either side of the Atlantic as well as on platforms that stretch from football stadiums and major festivals down to intimate nightclubs worldwide. The 2007 album Cumbia Chilombiana, propelled by the singles "The Conductor" and "Lanzaplatos," marked their commercial breakthrough even though a live audience had already formed. The 2010 live recording Vivito y Coleando found listeners in the United States, and 2013's Gran Pecador, which drew on surf music, vallenato, urban cumbia, psychedelic textures, ska, and punk, became their strongest-selling project to date. In 2019 the band marked its twentieth year with the album Mambo Mundial on Barbès Records. Over the ensuing five years the musicians continued to travel, performing in clubs throughout South America and releasing several singles, among them the 2024 track "Motivo Real."

Their first album, Chico Trujillo y la Señora Imaginación, appeared in 2001 and later surfaced in Germany under the title Up the Ass!. Radio-friendly singles "Y Si No Fuera" and "Maria Rea" helped the record achieve immediate domestic success. The blend of rock, ska, and hip-hop with classic cumbia, lightly seasoned by Balkan wedding music, caught radio listeners off guard in a positive way. Live presentations proved still more magnetic, thanks to the ensemble's vitality, intricate arrangements, and consistently festive atmosphere. The 2003 live set Fiesta de Reyes caught on across Europe. Constant touring left little room for rehearsal or studio work, yet the group tested fresh material onstage for audiences in Chile, Ecuador, and Colombia.

Chico Trujillo delivered the studio album Cumbia Chilombiana in 2007 after two Top Ten singles, "La Escoba" and "The Conductor," with "Lanzaplatos!" following in 2008 ahead of the next release, Plato Unico Bailable. By then the band was appearing on rock and jazz festival stages throughout Europe. Two additional projects, Chico de Oro and the live collection Vivito y Coleando, arrived in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 the musicians took the main stage at Lollapalooza Chile. Critic Jon Pareles, writing in the New York Times, observed that "Syncopation, momentum, and a way of romping through pain -- a party band needs them all, and Chico Trujillo has them." The group returned to the United States festival in 2012, the same year it issued its Barbès Records debut El Gran Pecador, and expanded its itinerary to include major coastal cities.

La Reina de Todas Las Fiestas, a 2016 concept album, revolves around the symbolic female figure Reina, who embodies Central and South American customs of celebration and communal gathering that cut across lines of race, age, gender, and economic status. Although certain reviewers highlighted its political dimension, radio programmers, club DJs, and concert promoters embraced the set as a sequence of dancefloor cumbias. After routing through Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States, Chico Trujillo commemorated its twentieth anniversary with the eleven-track Mambo Mundial in 2019, which featured guest contributions from Son Rompe Pera, Rebel Diaz, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Las Manos de Fillipi, and Camilo Salinas. That November the band released the non-album single "Cumbia Algarrobera," a session leftover recorded with Son Rompe Pera.

Emerging from the pandemic period, the musicians resumed road work and, in 2021, issued the single "No Soy de Aqui Ni Soy de Alla" alongside Gispsy & His Combo. The following year brought the tango-cumbia hybrid "Lamento Borincano," fronted by La Dame Blanche. September 2023 saw two sharply contrasting singles appear within a fortnight: the richly traditional cumbia "A Poco No" and the cumbia/hip-hop track "Cumbiando Toda La Noche," recorded with Tercos and Javier Nortega and featuring Kun El Principe, Sophie Sobral, and MPDhela. Touring persisted, and in May the band unveiled the tropical cumbia "Motivo Real."