ZURI ARTIST

Jesús "Jazzloco" Almenas

Jesus Vicente Almenas (born May 1, 1980) is a Panamanian-American guitarist. Almenas was born at Gorgas Hospital in Ancón, Panama on May 1, 1980. Second son of the marriage between Vicente Almenas and Catalina Concepción. Jesus started his musical training at 4 years old with his father, Vicente Almenas, a Puerto Rican U.S. Army retired living in Panama. In 1989 he was studying under Rómulo Gómez, a guitar instructor teaching at the Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal. In 1995-1996, he studied at the National Conservatory in Panama, but left due to lack of popular music tutoring. He then studied in 1997 with Aristides "Tille" Valderrama, a professor graduated from Berklee College of Music. Since 1994 until 1997 he attended to the sessions at the Panama Jamboree Juventud, a youth festival that included arts, media and entertainment. These sessions were moderated by Mauricio Smith, with guest artists such as Danilo Pérez, Chucho Valdés, Antonio Sanchez, among others. During 1999-2001 he served in the United States Army. He has performed many different events, including opening for Poncho Sanchez with Grupo Nega, under the direction of Fidel Morales; Premiata Fornería Marconi, Focus, Nexus with Equinox, a progressive rock band from Panama; the Panama Big Band for the First Panama Jazz Festival; Sharo from Panama, playing at Wilmington, North Carolina; and many rock, jazz, fusion, pop, and Latin music acts locally and internationally, along with different jingles and radio spots. He played for Dyango on April 19, 2007, and Julio Sabala on August 16, 2007 at the Atlapa Convention Center.

Currently he is part of Ruleta, a rock band from Panama, and Corona Jazz Quartet, from Panama as well. Also a guest guitarist for the Panamanian hardcore band Rencilla, recording tracks for their latest CD, as well as making comments on his experience with the band on the accompanying DVD.

Recently on July 21, 2007 Ruleta ended 5th at a Panamanian contest for upcoming bands held by PanamaROCK. On December 1, 2007 Ruleta was nominated by PanamaROCK as best Pop Rock Band. Los 33 won the category.

Currently, Almenas is a guitar professor at the Academia de Música de Panamá.

Justo Villaláz (RENCILLA)

Born in Panama City, on august 30, 1973, he started listening to rock music at 7 years old, listening to bands like Kiss, Quiet Riot, Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue, Megadeth, Agnostic Front, D.R.I., S.O.D., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Death, Venom, Motorhead, Ramones, Misfits, Sex Pistols, Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, etc and then his interest to play guitar was born.

He started playing death metal in late 80s, in bands like Holy Death, Hecatombe and Morbid Silence and in mid 90s, he founded with Ramphis Samudio , the Hardcore band RENCILLA, winner of the Panama Rock awards in 4 occasions as best hard rock band in 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2007, besides being considered, one of the best Hardcore bands in Panama.

Besides playing in RENCILLA, he is also a show organizer, and he works in Swiss Sport Corp. as a Brand Manager for Nautica and Timex, and watch trainer.

He currently lives in Panama with his wife Irene, who is the bass player of RENCILLA, and their little daughter Joan Jett Villalaz Batista, and still playing with RENCILLA and CRIMSON GHOST, a cover band.

SK. Punk Rock Band

La banda femenina de punk inició en Panamá para el año 2004 y al principio era tan solo dos guitarristas, una de ellas Chantal Rivera. Diversas integrantes pasaron por sus filas y al año siguiente Cristal Rivera -hermana de Chantal- se unió en el bajo. SK formó parte del disco compilatorio Planeta Péndulo (2008), lanzado por el sello independiente Editoris, donde contribuyeron con los temas "Enero555" y "El Nuevo Trend". Para esta grabación, que fue la primera experiencia discográfica de la banda, se contó con la participación de Benito Bermudez (Lemmiwinks, Big Fat Hen) en la batería y Valerie Ruiz (Urania) en las vocales. Actualmente se han reformado y cuentan en sus filas con María Alejandra Branca y Valeria Candanedo en la batería y vocales respectivamente. Con esta nueva alineación ya se está trabajando en la pre-producción del disco debut del cuarteto en los Backline Studios de Janio Obón, bajo la coordinación y manejo de Fabricio Mejía, quien ha trabajado previamente con artistas como Tierra de Nadie, Filtro Medusa, Indigo, AP, Gonzalo Horna y más recientemente con Margarita Henriquez, ganadora del Latin American Idol.