SUMA PHAYIRI & THE SOUTHERN JAGÜARS

SUMA PHAYIRI is an outstanding musician, composer, producer and performer, born in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Since 2006, this artist has participated in renowned bands and musical collectives.

Suma’s beginnings developed in the Colombian punk and hardcore scene, and his records and performances then started merging with a lot of Blues, Reggae, Cumbia, Gypsy and Funk. Later throughout his travels and participation in bands with other musicians in Bogotá, Buenos Aires and London, his style of sound has been enriched by Colombian Folk, Dub and HipHop.

His creativity and improvisation skills have led him to play with musicians of different genres and countries around the world. After many experiences and interactions with sound, social movements, mysticism and human emotions, Suma arrived in London in 2019 where he started to get involved with several music and art collectives around the city.

Whilst connecting through jamming at live music venues or playing at Colombian folk drumming sessions, Jazz jams, social protests, open mics, HipHop Rap battles, and many other contexts, he finally found a large crew of musicians from different backgrounds that were interested in making a lit ensemble, ‘The Southern Jagüars’. ’S&TSJ’ is full of flavour and creativity, mixing Afro-Colombian Roots Rhythms, Reggae, Dub, Gypsy and HipHop, developing original songs filled with spicy dancing vibes and lyrical awareness content.

Among its members, we can find very talented artists including: Veronica Arcila, a Colombian multi instrumentalist musician who has been playing in many bands from the London Latin scene, Tom McCanan, a Saxophonist from South London who is very active in the jazz vanguard movement, Valeria Pacific, an amazing percussionist all the way from Bogotá dedicated to playing Colombian Folk, Nicholas James Orlando, another tremendous multi instrumentalist musician from Manchester with Native American roots who’s a piano specialist with a very authentic jazz/ hiphop style, Marshall Fernandez, a Reggae specialist drummer and rapper from Perú, Sebastian Martinez, a Bass-man and percussionist from Bogotá dedicated to playing Brazilian and Colombian Folk, Reggae, Blues and HipHop, as well as Melissa Stephanie, a charismatic Cuban singer in love with all the Latin Folk rhythms.

Additionally, there are many other musicians that have been playing with ’Suma & The Southern Jagüars’ as special guests like Stephanie Santiago, Kanti Kena, Luzmira Zerpa and Parisa.