After nearly a decade spent living in the city, Cristina Pato is a full-fledged New Yorker. But her first home is the place where Spain meets the Celtic world: Galicia.
Pato's instrument is the gaita, a Galician bagpipe, and her roots lie in traditional Galician music — though she also boasts graduate degrees in classical piano, music theory and electronic composition. And if you happen to think that bagpipes automatically equal St. Patrick's Day parades or Austin Powers movies, Pato would like to disabuse you of those notions: The only green she sported on the day of her Tiny Desk Concert was on the punkishly tipped ends of her hair.
Pato sets her musical vantage points far from tradition, aided by her thoroughly simpatico collaborators in this trio: accordionist and composer Victor Prieto (who, like Pato, is a native of the town of Orense in Galicia) and American percussionist Shane Shanahan (who, like Pato, is also a longtime member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble).
After the trio's set, one of our colleagues likened Pato's wailing melodies to those of Ornette Coleman. Is this world music? Is it jazz? Does it matter? Whatever you call it, it's wild and entirely wonderful.
Set List
Credits
Producers: Denise DeBelius, Anastasia Tsioulcas; Editor: Parker Miles Blohm; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Parker Miles Blohm, Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; photo by Hayley Bartels/NPR
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