MESTIZX is Bolivian-born singer and multi-medium performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and renowned Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly’s debut album as co-composers, arrangers and musicians.

 

Partners in both marriage and art, the Amsterdam-based Ferragutti and Rosaly dove into the sounds of their respective ancestral roots in Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico to create a deeply personal meditation on decolonization and the defiant power of ritual and protest. They chose the title MESTIZX – a non-gendered version of the sometimes slurred Spanish colonial word for a “mixed person” – as a means of both challenging and embracing the liminality of their identities and artistic practices.

 

“Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly play freely with the nuances of Latin rhythms on their debut Mestizx, producing infectiously kinetic compositions that reference jazz, cumbia, bomba and much more.” - Ammar Kalia, The Guardian

 

"…a coherent, unique sound culture landscape, that often has the most intoxicating
effect…The wealth of ideas is too great, the extreme cross-disciplinary plurality too
elegant.” 5 stars. - Concerto
“…communal, celebratory, soul-comforting and moving music.” - Jazz Fun
“*****” - Musik Express
“Album of the week July 2, 2024” - Worldwide FM
Best albums of 2024 so far - Treble Magazine
“… a timeless piece of art. 10/10“ - Justin Turford - Truth & Lies