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Gabriel Garzón-Montano On World Cafe

Gabriel Garzón-Montano's latest album is <em>Jardín</em>.
Courtesy of the artist
Gabriel Garzón-Montano's latest album is Jardín.

Gabriel Garzón-Montano's latest record, Jardín, is liquid-smooth, intricate and organic. It's the sum of Garzón-Montano's many influences: the slick pop of New York City, the cumbia flair of his Colombian dad and even hanging out with famed minimalist composer Philip Glass when he was 5 years old:

[Glass] had a room with a Steinway in it, and sometimes I would lay under it while he was practicing and writing some stuff, and at one point one day I just yelled — I was like, "This is boring! You need to switch it up!" And he was like, "Um, this is what I do."

In the past few years, Garzón-Montano went from playing for a few people in tiny clubs in New York to opening arena shows for Lenny Kravitz. He was sampled in a megahit by Drake long before he'd made his own solo name. In this session, we talk about the good and the bad of early success, plus Garzón-Montano's earliest and still most touching influence: his late mom.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.