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| The Puro Queso Jazz Quartet was founded by Venezuelan bass player José Layo Puentes and Italian pianist Giampaolo Orrigo, who along with other University music students had been playing Italian folk music together since 2002. In 2003, they were joined by Chilean drummer Leonardo Soto and Mexican guitarist Victor Ruiz, with the idea of playing strictly jazz (with a mostly Latin flavor), and they began a routine of rehearsals to begin to integrate their personal experiences into a distinct group sound. Some months later, Leonardo Soto had to leave the project to dedicate himself to orchestral music, and was replaced by Luke Savage, a percussionist from New Mexico, at first playing the Peruvian cajón and later the traditional drum set. In mid-2004 the band (at the time creatively named “Orrigo-Puentes-Savage-Ruiz”), began playing weekly at a renowned Italian restaurant in Lawrenceville, at which time the group began to define its distinctive style and repertory. In 2005 the band, now going by the name Puro Queso Jazz Quartet, began performing weekly at a well-known bar in downtown Pittsburgh accompanied by New York saxophonist Paul Eiss, whose integration into the group occurred organically after a couple of exploratory rehearsals. During this period the group began to define itself as a quintet and started giving concerts at other local venues, such as museums and festivals, as well as social events. Toward the end of 2005, pianist Giampaolo Orrigo reluctantly left the group to devote time to other pursuits, paring the quintet back into a quartet. The Puro Queso Jazz Quartet continues to make an unassuming but sincere contribution to the already rich and demanding local jazz culture |