Masterclasses with Minino Garay
From musical roots to a voice of your own
« Minino Garay est un génie des rythmes avec ce bombo monstrueux qui ressemble au visage d’un dieu qui viendrait se coller au sien »
Le Monde.fr, 2022
South American percussion, drum kit and improvisation with a musician who connects Argentine folk traditions, jazz and world music.
An invitation to understand rhythms through their origins, bring them to your instrument and discover new possibilities for your music.
Rhythm as a meeting place
How can the pulse of the bombo legüero translate to the drum kit? What happens when a traditional rhythm enters a dialogue with jazz? How do you find your own musical voice while staying connected to its roots?
Minino Garay explores these questions through musical practice. His masterclasses connect Argentine and Afro-Peruvian percussion with the modern drum kit, improvisation and collective music-making. Technical learning goes hand in hand with cultural context, listening and the experience of playing with others.
What we will explore
Bombo legüero and Afro-Peruvian cajón. Discover their sounds, playing techniques and the musical traditions they belong to.
South American rhythms. Explore chacarera, zamba, cueca, landó, zamacueca and festejo through their accents, movement and expressive possibilities.
From percussion to the drum kit. Adapt traditional patterns to the modern kit and find ways to bring them into your own musical language.
Improvisation and a personal voice. Expand your rhythmic vocabulary, listen to the relationships between instruments and turn what you learn into new ideas.
The voice has rhythm, too. The artistic project Speaking Tango opens a path toward coordinating words and instruments: spoken texts, percussion and jazz respond to one another as parts of a shared expression.
A musical journey to share
Born in Córdoba, Argentina, and based in France since the 1990s, Minino Garay is a percussionist, composer and educator. His career encompasses more than 250 recorded albums and a continuing dialogue between Argentine folk traditions, jazz and world music.
In Argentine music, he has shared stages and studios with Mercedes Sosa, Cuchi Leguizamón — with whom he performed in Paris —, Dúo Salteño and Jaime Torres. With Torres, he recorded a collaboration alongside Magic Malik, an experience that reflects his connection to tradition and his interest in extending its possibilities.
His international collaborations include Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jacky Terrasson, Baptiste Trotignon, Randy Brecker, David Sánchez, Ibrahim Maalouf, Richard Galliano, Pierre Bertrand and Caja Negra, and Camille Bertault, among many others. He has brought his music to festivals including Montreux, North Sea Jazz and Nice Jazz.
Since arriving in Europe, Minino has had a particular interest in sharing and promoting the roots of Argentine percussion. Over the years, festivals and institutions in several countries have invited him to teach classes, workshops and masterclasses.
In 2026, this educational and artistic work followed an especially active schedule. In February, he began the year in Cosquín with a seminar organized by Digi-Monde. In May, invited by Berklee College of Music, he joined the faculty of the Berklee at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival program in Morocco. From July 9 to 11, he served as artistic director of the 2nd Festival des Percussions du Monde in Saint-Raphaël: three days of programming, four concerts, eight workshops and more than twenty artists. In December, the Divino Music Festival in Argentina will include masterclasses and residencies developed with Digi-Monde. A new edition of the Cosquín masterclasses is also planned for January 2027.
He continues to present his projects Speaking Tango and Los Arregladores — the latter with Baptiste Herbin — while serving as artistic director of the tenth edition of the Divino International Music Festival (France–Argentina). Performance, composition and teaching are part of the same pursuit: helping musicians from different cultures listen to one another and create together.
A proposal for your institution
For jazz and world music schools, conservatories, festivals and training organizations interested in percussion, the drum kit and exchange between musical traditions.
Tell us about your participants and your institution’s goals so that we can shape a tailored proposal with Minino Garay.
Bring a Minino Garay masterclass to your institution.
Contact: Silvia Errea
silvia@matewayagency.com
matewayagency.com