Sergent Garcia

(Website)

With the release of five critically-acclaimed and top-selling albums with Virgin/EMI from 1997 to 2006, Sergent Garcia’s appealing “salsamuffin” hits and crowd-pleasing live shows helped him become a leading figure in the Latin Alternative movement and one of the biggest Latin music stars in Europe, Latin America and beyond. But before he returned to his Latin roots and took on the debonair identity of Sergent Garcia, Bruno Garcia was a star in the 80s and 90s French punk and indie rock scene with his band Ludwig von 88. From punk, Bruno moved on to reggae with the successful Sergent Garcia sound system. Then his musical wanderings led him to Cuba and the exciting and infectious grooves of Latin music.

The honest blending of cultures is nothing new to Bruno. Born to a Basque Spanish father and a French mother, and with family connections to Algeria and the Ivory Coast, his early years took him to live in Bilbao, Spain before settling in Paris when ha was five years old. The fat, awkward and drunken Sergent Garcia was Zorro’s bumbling nemesis on a TV show popular when Bruno was a child, and ha was often taunted with his nickname in the schoolyard. Rather than fight it, he began to like the idea of taking on the name of the anti-hero. “If everyone wants to be Zorro”, explains Bruno, “I will be Sergent Garcia. I think he’s the real man of the people, not Zorro. Zorro is just an aristocratic landlord”.

Albums

Una y otra vez (Time and Time Again)

Label: Cumbancha
Distribution in France: Pias
Release date: March 21, 2011

Sergent Garcia, a heavyweight in the European mestizo music scene, is set to release his first full-length album in five years with the groundbreaking Una y Otra Vez (Time and Time Again). A pioneer in blending the fiery Caribbean sounds of salsa, reggae, ska and dancehall with a punk attitude and continental style, Sergent Garcia’s latest musical adventure finds him traveling to Colombia to dive into what is currently the epicenter of some of the world’s hottest sounds. Scheduled for release on March 21st in Europe and May 21st in the rest of the world, Una y Otra Vez marks this former rocker’s return to his independent roots with a new global label partner, Cumbancha, and a renewed creative energy.

It was during his tour of South America that Bruno had a chance to discover the wealth of Colombia’s music scene first-hand. “Colombia is incredible. There were very good bands playing every day in the streets, in the bars, every place; a lot of different styles, a lot of people making music, making art, it was all very, very interesting”, says Bruno, “And the people, the vibration of the people is incredible”. While in Colombia, Bruno worked with Sidestepper’s Richard Blair on a five-track EP entitled Cumbiamuffin. After that experience, Bruno knew then that he must return to produce an album featuring Colombian musicians and styles, and thus the Una y otra vez (Time and Time Again) project was born. Finally, Bruno headed to Colombia where he worked with a range of local musicians he met during his travels, including Jacobo Velez, clarinetist and director of the cutting-edge band La Majorra Eléctrica, Erika Munoz, one of the lead singers of electrotropical pioneers Sidestepper, musicians from La-33, Colombia’s top young salsa band, Liliana Saumet, the lead singer of Bomba Estéreo and many others. “With this record I wanted to play with all these musicians because they are really young all-stars of Colombia”, notes Bruno.

With a plethora of standout tracks, Una y otra vez is an album that will surely be considered Sergent Garcia’s best work to date. Bruno Garcia is as fired up and excited as he’s ever been and looking forward to bringing this exciting new project to the world. “This record is about to be released and I can’t wait for spring to start promoting it,” states Bruno, “You are not getting rid of me. I am going to be here nagging.” The same is true of Sergent Garcia’s band, which will be touring across Europe, the USA and latin America from the end of March until October 2011.

Sergent Garcia - Una y otra vez (Time and Time Again)

On Tour