Results for "Afro-Cuban"

Brian Clemens

Born: July, 1994

Brian Clemens is a Southern California-based pianist, arranger, composer, educator, and bandleader. Brian enjoys a career as a versatile pianist covering anything from Latin Jazz, Great American Songbook, R&B, and country-western music. After obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Chapman University in Orange, CA, Brian continued his education with a Master's Degree in Music Performance (Jazz and Commercial Music) from Cal State Fullerton where he was a two time winner of the "Friends of Jazz" Scholarship Award.

Brian has played at internationally and at well-known Orange and Los Angeles County venues such as Herb Albert's Vibrato Jazz Grille, The Coach House,  and more and has studied with world-class classical and jazz musicians such as the Grammy Award-winning pianist, Bill Cunliffe

Uziel Colon

Born: March

Uziel Colón is a pianist, arranger, and composer whose remarkable talent has earned him a well-established name as a prominent musician in the music industry. Throughout the years, his passion for music has driven him to reach new heights in his musical career, giving him the opportunity to perform with many great names including renowned percussionist Eguie Castrillo, legendary vibraphonist Victor Mendoza, percussionists Giovanni Hidalgo and Marc Quiñones, trumpet players Greg Hopkins and Humberto Ramirez, and accomplished bassists Oscar Stagnaro, Oskar Cartaya, and Abraham Laboriel. 

Evan Francis

NYC-based EVAN FRANCIS writes, arranges, and has performed extensively in various Latin, Jazz and Pop music scenes on
both coasts. Originally from Los Angeles, he was the featured flute soloist on the Pacific Mambo Orchestra's Grammy-winning album, and
in Downbeat Magazine Critics' Poll, he has been named a 'Rising Star' for six years in a row. Evan has toured and recorded in many
different context. He
has been a professional musician since 1998, composing and performing on saxophone, flute, clarinet, afro-latin percussion, and vocals. He
has performed/recorded/toured around the world with notables like Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Talib Kweli and
many more

Grupo Los Santos

Grupo los Santos has been together for over 20 years developing a strong following and individual sound, with a patented blend of Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Flamenco and NYC Jazz influences; creating unique, original rumba, samba, and funky acoustic/electric music. Drawing from the traditional/folkloric music of the Americas, played with an open and spontaneous jazz sensibility, the band cuts a very atypical profile in New York's Jazz and Latin Jazz scene. The band's love and individual deep study of these musical traditions has born great fruits, both compositionally and in performance and execution. The sound is coherent, focused and intelligent-the music is both classic and forward-looking at the same time-and the expression is original, soulful, high-energy and transcendent of idiom.

Pete Smith

Pete Smith is a New York City-based guitarist who performs in a wide range of musical settings. As a founding member of Grupo los Santos, a vanguard Afro-Cuban and Brazilian-style quartet, he has played New York’s Town Hall and concerts throughout the U.S., Cuba & Austria. He has performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival, as well as concerts in thirty countries throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. He has worked with Norah Jones, trumpeter Donald Byrd, Cuban trombone master Juan Pablo Torres, Andrew Hill, Kat Edmonson, Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, the Moonlighters, Madeline Peyroux, Natalie Merchant and Huun-Huur-Tu, and is a member of Michael Feinstein’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Omar Sosa

Born: April 10, 1965

Composer-pianist-bandleader Omar Sosa was born in 1965 in Camagüey, Cuba's largest inland city. At age eight, Omar began studying percussion and marimba at the music conservatory in Camagüey; in Havana, as a teenager, he took up piano at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Música, and completed his formal education at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Among his influences, Omar cites traditional Afro-Cuban music, European classical composers (including Chopin, Bartok, and Satie), Monk, Coltrane, Parker, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Chucho Valdés, and the pioneering Cuban jazz group Irakere

Azar Lawrence

Born: November 3, 1952

Azar Lawrence led a very musical childhood and began playing drums at the age of five and moved onto violin and piano under the direction of his mother Ima Lawrence. Ima, a gifted musician and teacher from whom Azar received his acute flair for all things music has shaped many successful musicians. Azar began playing with the USC JR Orchestra at the age of five. He played violin until the age of 8. He performed vocals accompanied by his mother during elementary school where she taught sixth grade and music At age eleven he began hearing a different musical voice. He was an accomplished pianist, violinist and vocalist in his own right at the time. He thought it was time to learn viola

Gilbert Castellanos

Gilbert Castellanos, renowned musician, composer, curator, educator and arranger based in San Diego, is one of the hottest jazz trumpeters in the United States today.  Adept in straight-ahead, as well as Latin and Afro Cuban jazz, Castellanos has become a leading figure of the vibrant, diverse and flourishing jazz scene in America’s Finest City. An established scene-maker on the West Coast, Castellanos is the Artistic Curator of both of the San Diego Symphony's highly successful jazz series - Jazz at The Jacobs and Bayside Summer Nights - which have featured some of today's brightest stars including ‪Gregory Porter‬, Chick Corea, ‪Chucho Valdes‬, ‪Dianne Reeves‬, ‪Cecile McLorin Salvant‬, John Faddis and more.  Castellanos’ talents are also renowned in the dance community

Ramiro Marziani

Born: December 27, 1995

Marziani is a touring and studio guitarist, composer/arranger, conductor and producer from Argentina. From an early age, every time he saw a guitar, he had a desire to play it. It wasn’t until he found a dusty guitar in his Grandma’s house that the journey began. "My dad began showing me progressive rock records from the 70s that he listened to as a child, and that introduced me to a new world of instruments and innovative music that I hadn’t heard before. The concept of Avant-Garde has been with me ever since." For Marziani, inspiration comes from many different places. A walk to a remote part of town, sitting by the river or observing people’s faces in a crowded place

Liam Leahy

Born: April 15

Flautista and Band Leader for Sweat~Heat AfroCuban Jazz, Accompanist and Soloist for Blues, Jazz and Latin Jazz bands. Arranger and composer