SHORT BIO

Grupo Masato is a multi-ethnic Portland-based band that plays highly irresistible danceable music from Latin America! A powerful combinations of Chicha, Cumbia and Afro Peruvian music that invites all ages to meet on the dance floor and celebrate our diversity. Chicha music grew out of the Andean music in Peru mixed with Cumbia rhythms from Colombia, and were transformed and reinterpreted by electric guitars, Fender spring reverb amplifiers, complex African based percussions and the discovery of psychedelic rock. Grupo Masato explores and celebrates this diverse music with a powerful show that will make you want to dance. Grupo Masato’s music is as intoxicating as the beverage it's named after, a powerful liquor from the Amazon jungle in South America, made out of fermented yucca.

Around June 30th of 2015, thoughts of another Chicha band were beginning to swirl around the minds of Greg Klein (bass player), Claudia Cuentas (main vocalist and flute player) and Otto Gygax (vocals and percussion.) Greg and Otto had moved to Portland from Corvallis, where they had started the first ever Chicha fever in Oregonians in Orquesta Monte Calvo and thought ‘Why not? Try Portland next.’ The three together, having had a rather extensive musical background, were not foreign to the idea of venturing in a much larger and demanding setting such as Portland, Oregon. Off they went inviting other musicians to complement the expected Chicha sound and, through several years of work, tests, trials and triumphs, met the 9 other performers that today, collectively call themselves Grupo Masato.