JAZZ : Musician Quintero Digs Roots

Shortly before Latin jazz guitarist and composer Juan Carlos Quintero was due to record a second album last year, he returned to his native Colombia to immerse himself in his musical roots.

While visiting the mountain villages, he rediscovered cumbia, one of the many folk rhythms that pervade the villagers’ daily lives. The beat inspired him to write “Festivals,” which he included in the new album lineup.

“Colombia is musically very rich,” Quintero said over the phone recently from his home in Los Angeles. “We spent some time in Bogota, but I didn’t find what I was seeking until we headed out to the villages.”

Quintero combines pop and jazz with Latin cumbia, samba and salsa. The result is a smooth and elegant mainstream sound that Quintero says is influenced by Cal Tjader, Carlos Santana, Pat Metheny and Eddie Palmieri.

His performance Saturday at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library courtyard is presented by Arte y Cultura and the Friends of the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library as part of the facility’s Multicultural Performing and Visual Arts Festival.

Quintero, 30, was born in Medellin, Colombia, but raised in Brussels and in Freehold, N.J., the boyhood home of Bruce Springsteen. He attended the Berklee School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston before heading to Los Angeles in 1986 to pursue session work at the encouragement of jazz guitarist Tommy Tedesco.

Quintero will be accompanied on Saturday by co-composer Alec Milstein on bass, Angel Figueroa on percussion, Johnny Castaneda on drums and Otmaro Ruiz on piano. The group will perform songs from Quintero’s first album, “Juan Carlos Quintero,” and “Through the Winds,” due out this month on Nova Records.

Who: Juan Carlos Quintero.

When: Saturday, June 13, at 7 and 9 p.m.

Where: San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. Seating is limited. Concert-goers may bring lawn chairs.

Whereabouts: Take the Santa Ana (5) Freeway to Ortega (74) Highway. Exit west on Ortega Highway. In downtown San Juan Capistrano, turn north on El Camino Real. The library is just past the mission, near the corner of El Camino Real and Acjachema Street.

Wherewithal: $2 donation.

Where to Call: (714) 493-3984.