“Uribe shows his poetic lyricism and intelligent composing and arranging. He offers a fresh view of classic Latin rhythms.” (JazzTimes.com)
 
Born in Colombia, Uribe leads the high energy, 16-piece band that blends Colombian rhythms cumbia and chandé with funk and powerful jazz technique. Credited by The Boston Globe with creating “an intoxicating variety” of music, Uribe has performed with Grammy winners Carlos Vives and Arturo O’Farrill and has been interviewed by CNN, Univisión, El Tiempo, and The Miami Herald. Cumbia Universal will be released by prestigious Latin jazz label Zoho Music, which has released albums by Grammy-winning artists Ray Barreto, Arturo O’Farrill, and Bobby Sanabria. More information on Uribe and his buzzing band is available on GUBB’s official website. GUBB’s live performance consists of a remarkable combination of trumpets, trombones, and clarinets soaring over an amazing percussion section and the leader of the band dancing to the beat while rocking out on his accordion. GUBB revitalizes the sounds of the Colombian cumbia big bands of the 60’s by adding to Uribe’s original, more modern songs. The band features a unique combination of New York’s top musicians from all around the world, including Argentina, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Uribe’s whirlwind travels began when he studied at the Berklee College of Music, where he was awarded the Steve Gadd Zildjia Scholarship Award in 2007. He moved to New York City in 2008 and soon established himself firmly within the heart of the city’s music scene. Uribe has since taken his music to The Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Blue Note Jazz Club (NYC), the United Nations, and the Colombian Embassy to The Netherlands. In 2012, Uribe was named by Colombia’s government one of the 100 Most Outstanding Colombians Living Abroad. The list included Shakira, Nobel Prize winner García Márquez, and actress Sofia Vergara.
 
Cumbia Universal features a collaboration with 7-time Grammy winner Ruben Blades, and other guests including guests from Senegal, Israel, and Portugal. “Cumbia is considered by some a rhythm, by others a genre and still others a movement. In this album cumbia is rhythm itself: tension and release, ones and zeros, action and reaction, down beat and up beat…continuous movement. It is also future roots and a common past.
 
“Paint your village and you will be universal” was the Tolstoy quote that I mentioned to Juan Pablo when we met to discuss the concept of this album. I don’t remember how I came by these words but they struck a chord in me, as years before I had decided that my palette was a 16-piece orchestra and my village, Colombia. With sincere love I have painted the streets and houses of my village from afar, hoping that others will see in it their own.” -Gregorio Uribe
 
Gregorio Uribe Big Band official site