Marcela Pinilla

In 1998, Marcela was invited to perform in Kuala Lumpur with a six piece band, Tropicaribe. After a four month tour, she returned to Colombia and performed with this band for another year. In 1999, Marcela was asked to join the popular touring band Larrayan. She went with them to Jakarta for 3 months and then returned once again to Colombia. It was at this time that Marcela began to work steadily in the Colombian music scene, receiving calls for studio session work and high profile performances. Her work was expanding now to include more Latin music and she was starting to be in very high demand. By 2001, then already a successful and well-established vocalist in Colombia, Marcela decided to travel once again to Malaysia with Tropicaribe for an 8 month engagement playing Latin music. While performing with this group, Marcela received a call from Alonso Gonzalez to join Jazz Latino, a Latin jazz band also in Malaysia. After several months with that band and after a short break in Colombia, she then traveled to China to perform with the Canadian pianist/vocalist, Leon Durupt for ten months. In august 2004 she traveled to Malaysia once again where she started studying jazz music, with influences such as Miss Ella Fiztgerald, Abbey Lincoln and Patti Austin as well as some Latin jazz artists such as Tania Maria and Maria Caridad Valdez. In doing so, Marcela took her singing to a new level enabling her to perform in several jazz festivals such as the Kuching Jazz Festival, KL Music Festival, and the Sunrise Music Fest, among others.