Los Pinguos

Biography

Los Pinguos is a band formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the late 90’s, and led by musician and composer Adrian Buono along with his brother Enzo Buono, José Agote, Juan Manzur, Juan Manuel Leguizamón and Santiago “Fefe” Lee. The band plays a mixture of latin rhythms such as cumbia and rumba flamenca along with tango gypsy and rock influences.

In 2001, the band moved to Los Angeles and started performing in the streets of Santa Monica and local bars. Los Pinguos became popular in the US after participating on the TV Show “The Next Big Star,” where they received the Grand Prize. Since then, they have recorded several albums, Magia (2001), Camino Bueno (2002), Serenata (2003), Live in Los Angeles (2005), Peripecias (2006), California (2008) and 11.11 (2011) and performed all over the world in places such as India, Indonesia, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Canada, Buenos Aires… Los Pinguos have also participated on numerous TV shows in the US and Argentina and some of their songs have been included in the Putumayo world music compilations.

Most of the members of Los Pinguos are also part of the musical band “Regardel“, who plays famous Carlos Gardel songs on a reggae groove.

How we met:

Los Pinguos is one of the first we ever recorded. We met them as they were performing on the Santa Monica promenade and recorded them on our very first documentary featuring street musicians across the USA. This is how PFC Music Producer Enzo Buono got involved with Playing For Change and became part of the production team, as he was playing bass with Los Pinguos at the time.