My favorite band

My favorite group is Congreso. The music they play is a little bit difficult to describe (very different to others), because they combine progressive rock, folk music, and some types of jazz. They got together as a group as an initiative from three brothers (Patricio, Sergio, Fernando González) and the bass player Fernando Hurtado, all from the town Quilpué V region), to start playing some “covers” from anglo-speaking rock bands in 1964, just as everyone did on that time. Then they started introducing some ethnic instruments into their music and finally when the bass player and singer Francisco Sazo joined their group, the formed what is now known as “Congreso” in 1969. They started with influences from bands like “The Beatles” but started to join the national musical “movement” like “Los Jaivas” and “Los Blops”. They had a difficult time playing in concerts and selling records during the Military Regime from 1973-1990, because of the censorship and the shutting-down of many cultural sites; even through these hard times they continued to play music and creating albums. I like this group because they can capture national or latinamerican “motives” in their rock-like music. They use instruments such as charangos, Andean windpipes and sweet flutes at the same time as they use electrical guitars, bass (really grate´s bass guitars) and drums. They have been playing music for many years now so they have quite a big repertoire of songs with different characteristics. One can easily identify the stronger rock influence in their earlier years, while in the past years they have been moving more towards the folkloric side of music.