Gustavo Cortiñas’ Ft. Isaiah Spencer and Dave King

Gustavo Cortiñas

Embracing a multicultural language, while investing in a variety of disciplines within the music itself, Mexican born, and Chicago based drummer, composer, & producer Gustavo Cortiñas, has distinguished himself as a dynamic and melodic artist, committed to building empathy and understanding through music, in times of border walls and reductive narratives. Described as “One of Chicago’s most imaginative and exciting composers” (AllAboutJazz), “Cortiñas’ music is bluesy and deeply felt..sometimes it is raucus, sometimes solemn, but the music is always drenched in emotion.” (Modern Drummer). This can be heard on his six records as a leader, “Snapshot” (2013), “ESSE” (2017) “Desafío Candente” (2021), “Kind Regards” (2022), “Live in Chicago” (2024), and “The Crisis Knows No Borders”. “Gustavo Cortiñas is a musician with a message, one of social justice. He delivers it in a style that fuses the melodic sensibilities of his ancestral Mexico with the complex syncopation of jazz.” (ALLABOUTJAZZ). His sixth discographic production “The Crisis Knows No Borders” presents a compelling musical narrative that examines sustainability and global interconnectedness, which Downbeat calls “impactful music, marked with all the sorrow, strife, confusion, anger and bits of joy that go into the confounding mix of emotions Cortiñas feels at this moment in history…great storytelling without saying a word”. “Cortiñas doesn’t just write music—he builds bold, urgent conversations into his compositions.” (jazzviews.net) Through these critically acclaimed productions and his participation in more than 50 other discographic productions, “Cortiñas’s deft touch reaffirms his status as one of the great drummers in the City’s new guard.” (ChicagoReader).