Felipe Arce is an Argentinian bassist, composer, arranger, and educator. After several years of performing at the highest level of the South American jazz scene, he established himself in Brooklyn, New York, in April 2023. It was in this city that Expansión, his debut album as a bandleader, was conceived.

Felipe Arce’s journey in New York began with turbulence—waves of uncertainty crashing against the walls of a city as magnificent as it is unforgiving. Between countless moves and gigs of all kinds, he found himself in the company of fellow artists and immigrants, each carrying their own dreams, doubts, and an unshakable nostalgia for the lands they left behind.

It was within this chosen family—his Tribe, as he calls them—that Felipe found his true home, far beyond any physical space he occupied. Their energy, their relentless drive to be heard amidst the city’s never-ending noise, became the pulse of Expansión.

Some of the people who became Felipe’s companions in the making of this album include his fellow Argentinians—Sergio Wagner, Leo Genovese, Mario Scaramuzza, and Luis Bacqué—along with Italians Daniele Germani and Andrea Niccolai. This group of friends and world-class musicians came together to capture the essence of Felipe’s vision with pure, unfiltered emotion. In just six hours of recording at Bacque Recording (Roselle Park, New Jersey), they breathed life into each composition, turning raw feeling into sound—an honest, powerful reflection of the journey that brought them all here.

This debut album is more than a collection of compositions—it’s a sonic reflection of movement, searching, and carving out a space where one belongs. It lives in the in-between: between Buenos Aires and Brooklyn, between tradition and reinvention, between expansion and withdrawal.