If a Latin-funk band with modern cumbia tendencies can make it there, it'll make it anywhere. The "there" we're referring to is the answer to today's Geo Quiz -- Monterrey, Mexico. The band is an 11-piece combo from Austin, Texas, called Grupo Fantasma. The group had been playing together for a while and was doing just fine. But then, band-leader Adrian Quesada decided to go for it. He took Grupo Fantasma to play across the border in Monterrey.
Grupo Fantasma
QUESADA: "It's kind of a hot bed for cumbia and what they call the new urban cumbia sound. When we first started Grupo Fantasma and were taking the cumbia seriously we always felt the big test was to go down to Monterrey and see the reaction down there. It's no joke you'll get booed if it's not down right. So, that was probably the first time we realized that what we were doing was a good thing. We got respect. We actually got people to dance."
WERMAN: "That area along the border has such a distinctive kind of musical culture. It's pretty identifiable and yet all the music you make today the line isn't super direct. What are the sounds you were listening to that you kind of retained from your youth?
QUESADA: "Obviously, I grew up listening to a lot of Spanish language music. But late in high school I really got into funk music. And naturally there was just a slight Latin influence, it wasn't anything overt. We didn't know the term Latin Funk when we were 17, but we played funk music the way we heard it."
WERMAN: "One thing that's interesting is that you guys in Grupo have been opening for Prince. He's turned out to be one of Grupo's most important fans. How did that happen? Would you consider him a mentor?
QUESADA: "As much as he can be a mentor. He's really, really busy. What happened was we heard he had opened a club in Las Vegas and he wanted to Latin night on Thursday. We decided to send him our CD and I remember getting a call saying, "Prince is going to be listening to your CD today and make up his mind." And I thought that was the most ridiculous thing and we just kind of laughed it off. We got a call the next day that says, "He can't get a band to play on Thanksgiving Day and he said you guys can come up and play." So we played and I kept looking around and never saw him. And then towards the end of the show I looked and he had been sitting right next to the stage totally bobbing his head. And then at one point he was dancing. The next morning we got a call and he wanted us to be the house band on Thursday. And it just went on from there."
