Trombonist/composer/arranger William Cepeda is part of a new generation of musicians who have not only mastered the skills a jazz artist requires, but combine them with the traditional music of their homeland, creating a new and challenging repertoire. Cepeda calls his own variation on this theme "Afrorican Jazz."
As heir to the Cepeda family tradition, William bears the responsibility proudly. Comparable to the family of Israel "Cachao" López from Cuba, or the Caymmi family in Brazil, the Cepedas have been the keepers of traditional Puerto Rican music
for years. Growing up in Loíza, William was raised on the rhythms and melodies of the different kinds of Bomba and Plena. The Danzas and even Jíbara music from the Puerto Rican interior also formed part of his earliest and deepest education.
It was William's further training and contact with some of the greatest jazz musicians that brought him to immerse himself in the complexities of jazz improvisation and composition. He has studied and played with Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Lester and Joseph Bowie, David Murray, as well as many others. Among the great Latin stars with whom he has performed and recorded are Paquito d'Rivera, Celia Cruz, Oscar De Leon, Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente.
His experience with Dizzy Gillespie, one of the founders of Latin Jazz, began when he was hired by the master during a tour by Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra in 1989. Later, joining Gillespie's tour with Miriam Makeba, William participated in the
fusion of jazz with South African music. Shortly after this tour, upon his return to Puerto Rico in 1990 and still inspired by that collaboration, Cepeda created his Afrorican jazz. Not since the death of Rafael Cortijo had anyone carried Afro-Puerto Rican music to another level and much less mixed with jazz.
It is this extraordinary background that has allowed William Cepeda to develop such a
unique approach to music in general and jazz in particular. "My Roots and Beyond" is a
highly personal statement in whose compositions the essentials of jazz acquire a new
tonality and intensity through their encounter with Puerto Rican music.
