Grant Dull, also known as “El G,” is a recognized man about town in Buenos Aires. The Texas native first arrived in the Argentine capital in 1999. He founded a bilingual local culture web site, made a name as a DJ and party promoter, and then founded ZZK Records, which over the last decade has spread the gospel of digital cumbia around the globe.
Dull most recently branched out into film, making a documentary about the current Ecuadorian music scene, featuring ZZK artist Nicola Cruz. He’s also hosted artists, music people and journalists in Buenos Aires for years.
“Every year, usually around the northern hemisphere winter when it’s nice and hot down here, a ton of friends and friends of friends come into the city and ask me what’s going on or to show them around,” he tells Billboard. “So after a while I thought it would be a good idea to offer this insiders' information to everybody in the form of a music tour.”
The newly created ZZK Music Tours offers private or semi-private tours of the local scene, seven days a week.
“You can customize the tour to your needs and wants,” the text on the ZZK Music Tours web site reads. “Including transportation, length of tour, style of music and more.”
Itinerary and prices vary depending on whether visitors want to take a bus to tango bar or a limousine to a dance club, or anything in between. The tours include multiple stops over the course of the evening, a bilingual guide, concert tickets and door fees, as well as a complimentary cocktail.
“I want to show you the real Buenos Aires,” Dull says. “Not the stuff you find in the guide books, rather the vibrant, always-changing, every-night-is-a-new-adventure Buenos Aires that one taps into only after living here forever, exploring non-stop and meeting half of the cities musicians and promoters.”
