Los Gauchos are an international, New York-based 11-piece orchestra led by Argentine pianist and composer Guillermo Klein, whose bracing music melds post-bop and tango, Latin folk and rhythms, and even gypsy flamenco and rock. Their membership is unchanged after a quarter-century and includes top-notch talent including guitarist Ben Monder, saxophonists Miguel Zenon, Chris Cheek, and Bill McHenry, trumpeter/trombonist Diego Urcola, Taylor Haskins on trumpet and flugelhorn, trombonist Sandro Tomasi, percussionist/trumpeter Richard Nant, bassist Fernando Heurgo, and drummer Jeff Ballard.

Formed after the demise of Guillermo Klein Big Van in 1996, they cut their debut long-player for Candid in 1997 but it went unreleased. Sunnyside Communications picked up Los Gauchos II in 1999. Klein temporarily moved back to Argentina in 2000 so the group went on hiatus. They came back together in 2002, when the bandleader returned from his sojourn. They began gigging at the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, and later, Smalls. In 2003, they issued Los Guachos III. After a global tour in 2004, Fresh Sound New Talent released Live in Barcelona. Though Klein and members of Los Gauchos maintained busy individual careers, they reassembled in 2008 for the studio offering Filtros on Sunnyside. The universally acclaimed CaRREra was issued in 2012. In 2016, Klein and Los Gauchos, who were well-seasoned by touring festivals and playing steadily in New York clubs, assembled an aural travelog more than a standard repertoire, influenced by old and new tango, American jazz, modernism, and indie rock. They returned to the studio and cut Los Guachos V in 2016. Unlike most of their output, this volume included two startlingly reinvented covers: Miles Davis' "Donna Lee" and Andrew Hill's "Ashes" alongside ten of Klein's tunes.

In the fall of 2019, Klein and Los Gauchos issued their most ambitious record to date in Cristal, a suite-like work different from anything they'd undertaken before. Three of its tunes were Argentinian tango standards made popular by Carlos Gardel in the mid-20th century. The other nine tunes were linked by virtue of Klein's writing, that was not only influenced by Gardel, but also by the harmonic experiments of Astor Piazzolla and the later rhythmic explorations of Duke Ellington. Issued in September, the set was selected by numerous publications for their year-end jazz lists. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi