Monsieur Periné has been making a stateside splash this year, with a 15-date U.S. tour bringing the Colombian conjunto to some of the country’s biggest stages, and an NPR Tiny Desk Concert to tie a neat little bow on the whole affair. Still riding high on their North American romp, the genre-bending neo-swing/bolero orchestra has released a brand new music video for their single “Tu M’as Promis,” from their 2015 sophomore album Caja de Música.
As the title suggests, singer Catalina García takes the opportunity to show off the impeccable French she learned in high school as she sings sultry Gallic verses over a spry cavaquinho riff. But by the time they jump headfirst into the chorus, the song’s Franco-Brazilian vibe quickly gives way to the loping rhythms of a Barranquilla carnival, and García responds in kind by switching her romantic verses seamlessly back to Spanish.
Monsieur Periné doesn’t stop their multilingual, cross-continental musical voyage there, and “Tu M’as Promis” veers effortlessly through moments of gypsy jazz and even a brief, laid back merengue break before closing out with a classical string quartet. The song’s video is equally eclectic, starting out in a smoky black-and-white jazz club before exploding into a surreal, geometric world of tropical flora and fauna rendered in kaleidoscopic color. Directed by Laura Villegas and Santiago Caicedo, the video was filmed at the classic Bogotá venue Cuban Jazz Café, where the legendary Orquesta de Lucho Bermúdez used to play regularly in the 1950s.
Overall, it feels like an appropriate summary of Monsieur Periné’s diverse but wholly coherent approach to modern jazz and pop. More importantly, it’ll keep your feet tapping and your hips swaying the whole time.