Jenny and the Mexicats

Jenny & The Mexicats performed at The National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM.

Here are photos from the show.

The band’s performance in Albuquerque is part of their tour to promote their latest album Mar Abierto, which they released February 2017.

Alfonso Acosta, Pantera, is the guitarist and co-writer for Jenny and the Mexicats.

Jenny Ball is writer, vocalist and plays trumpet for Jenny and the Mexicats.

Luis Diaz, Icho, plays double bass and bass guitar for Jenny and the Mexicats.

Jenny is from London, England, and met the Mexicats in Madrid, Spain. They currently reside in México.

The term “Mexicats” comes from the colloquial term given to people from Madrid, gatos, or cats, along with the country of origin of the musicians in the band (without including Gonzalez).

According to the Jenny and the Mexicats Facebook page, Icho and Pantera have known each other since forever and had also shared other bands together.

Jenny began to play the trumpet when she was seven years old, and she taught herself to play the guitar.

The first name of Jenny and the Mexicats was Pachucos y la Princesa, which they had to change because, according to Icho, a lot of people had trouble pronouncing it.

Jenny first met Icho in Madrid, when she began to search for “new sounds.” Together they contacted Pantera and David Gonzalez Bernardos to form Jenny and the Mexicats.

Jenny and the Mexicats are celebrating their ten year anniversary this year.

The relation that Jenny and the Mexicats have between each other is familiar, according to Icho.

Music from Jenny and the Mexicats is a combination of jazz, rockabilly, folk, flamenco, reggae, son veracruzano, country or cumbia.

Jenny and the Mexicats second album, released in 2014, Ome, featured collaborations with different artists including Mexican tropical orchestra, La Sonora Santanera.

“They rehearsed nonstop for two months in the same Flamenco tablao they had met in, Jenny spoke no Spanish and David no English so it was left down to the universal love for creating music and some expert translating from the two Mexicans to bring it all together,” says their Facebook page.

What mainly brought Jenny and the Mexicats together was Jenny’s desire to find other sounds and other types of music, which was also what helped the band find their sound.

Patera used to be a flamenco guitar player, and Icho believed him to be the best for the job when starting the band.

Jenny jokingly said to My Statesman that she first wanted to play the trombone, but her arms weren’t long enough.

“What they’ve done with their influences is create this really impressive mix of rockabilly, cumbia, jazz, flamenco, and they perform it both in English and in Spanish-very cool sound,” said Felix Contreras, host of NPR’s Alt Latino.