Palonegro’s music spans from South American Andean styles to Afro-Caribbean music and Latin jazz, featuring the work of a diverse palette of Latin American composers and performers, many of them largely unknown among U.S. audiences, as well as original compositions and arrangements of Sergio Ospina-Romero, Palonegro’s director and pianist. This concert will be a musical journey through an array of musical styles, including bambucos, pasillos, danzones, porros, cumbias, sones, guarachas, and more. Rather than a straightforward itinerary from one region to the next, the program navigates and leaps between them, sometimes engaging with various traditions at once, as if emulating the way in which music is experienced across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Palonegro is: Sergio Ospina Romero (piano), Jacob Smith (bass), Michael Wimer (congas), and John Jairo Maruri (drums). 

 Repertoire: 

Sergio Ospina-Romero (b. 1981)

Yeyo (2023)

 Sergio Ospina-Romero

Cuatro historias de una mujer extraordinaria (2022)

I. 1973 (Bambuco joropiado)

II. 1975 (Salsa-Guaguancó)

III. 1981 (Pasillo)

IV. 1982 (Afanoso carranguero)

 Michel Camilo (b. 1954)

And Sammy Walked In (1989)

Alejandro Falcón (b. 1981)

Monk en Pueblo Nuevo (2009)

 Sergio Ospina-Romero

Para el Doctor Ospina (2020)

 Michel Camilo

Caribe (1988)

Performer Bios:

Sergio Ospina Romero is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He is the author of three books, Dolor que canta (2017), Fonógrafos Ambulantes (2023), and Talking Machine Empires (forthcoming), and of several articles, book chapters, and short pieces on sound reproduction technologies, Latin American music, and jazz that have appeared in journals, books, and blogs across the Americas. He has taught at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, and Cornell University. At Indiana University he usually teaches about the history of sound recording technologies, jazz outside the United States, and Latin American history. Prof. Ospina Romero is the recipient of various awards, including a Fulbright Scholarship, Cornell University’s Donald J. Grout Memorial Prize, the Klaus P. Waschmann Prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and an honorary mention at the Premio de Musicología Casa de las Américas. Most recently, he was selected as one of eight Faculty members in the whole IU system for the first cohort of IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellows (2022-2023). With Palonegro he has performed extensively in Colombia and the United States, and recorded the album “Two minutes apart”. Palonegro is now recording its second album. Stay tuned!

Jacob Smith is a rising bassist in Indianapolis. He has performed extensively in the Jazz genre while also maintaining a strong presence in the popular and Latin music scenes. Jacob has shared the stage with Indianapolis greats such as Rob Dixon, Steven Jones, Mark Buselli, Joel Tucker, and Bashiri Asad. During his time studying Jazz at Ball State University, he worked with amazing artists such as Bobby Watson, Wycliffe Gordon, and Ingrid Jensen. While studying for his master’s degree in jazz performance at Indiana University, Jacob had the pleasure of working with more wonderful artists such as Wayne Wallace and Jeff Parker. Jacob is Adjunct Professor of Jazz Bass at the University of Indianapolis.

Michael Wimer is a percussionist, drummer, and educator based in Bloomington, Indiana. Combining a radical commitment to curiosity and freedom of expression with an earnest respect for lineage and tradition, Michael performs a variety of popular musics informed by his study of Afro-Cuban folklore and the history of the New World. He received his bachelor’s degree in music performance from the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music in 2018. Michael has performed with the IU Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, Latin American, and Latin Jazz ensembles, and as a guest percussionist for IU’s 2019 Jazz Celebration with Vince Mendoza, and as an accompanist for dance classes and exhibitions with the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance. Since 2021, Michael has been working with author and historian Thaddeus Russell, producing the interview show “Unregistered,” the online alternative education platform “Unregistered Academy,” co-hosting the weekly news analysis show “Unreported,” and co-producing the “Icarus Fringe and Film Festival” at the William Carlos Williams Center in Rutherford, New Jersey. Michael regularly performs throughout Indiana with many groups, including Palonegro, 317 Proyecto, Yuri Rodriguez Ensemble, The Acre Brothers, The Exchanging Reality Family Band, The Algoriddims, and The Rob Dixon Quartet at The Mayor's Ball.

John Jairo Maruri is an undergraduate senior in Jazz Studies (drums) at the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music, where he studies under the tutelage of Sean Dobbins. He has also studied drums and percussion with Dafnis Prieto, Ignacio Berroa, and Michael Wimer. Most recently, John was awarded a Tuition Assistance Scholarship by the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation for his outstanding work as a Latin jazz drummer.