SOCIAL DISTANCING: Coming Together While Apart

The confluence of a worldwide pandemic, a whole lot of masks, 120 determined fans, and a poem-gone-viral have produced the bold and brilliant album Social Distancing, on which the Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet powerfully connects with planet Earth’s new reality. From relentless percussive chaos to sublime harmonies of healing, every moment of this recording delivers the listener from the confusion of the 2020 pandemic into an undeniably safe place: A new home called Afro-Peruvian jazz music. The band dug deep into their longstanding relationship with their fan base for this project. On the cover of Social Distancing are hand drawings of more than 120 fans who sent in their pictures as part of the design process. The faces of the pandemic are thus vividly captured in an album that is a rollercoaster of musical emotions. The actual pictures create a kaleidoscopic image on the CD itself. “When the pandemic hit, I had two choices,” Alegría says. “Stop everything and lay off the ba