Home » Member Page
JOEL HIERREZUELO
Born in Havana in 1972, JOEL HIERREZUELO BALART grew up sharing the musical world of his family. Lorenzo, Caridad and Reynaldo Hierrezuelo were his great-uncles. Percussions, guitar and singing were his passions at a very young age and he soon began guita
About Me
Born in Havana in 1972, JOEL HIERREZUELO BALART grew up sharing the musical world of his family. Lorenzo, Caridad and Reynaldo Hierrezuelo were his great-uncles. Percussions, guitar and singing were his passions at a very young age and he soon began guitar studies at the Academy of Music. At 12 he started singing and playing percussions in amateur bands. In 1995, he graduated as a music professor from the Havana Instituto Superior Pedagógico. • September 1995: as lead singer, Joel tours in France with Ricoson. Back in Cuba, he begins playing percussions in the band Temperamento with Roberto Fonseca, Javier Zalba, and Ruy Lopez Nousa. • 1997-2001: Joel moves to Paris and plays in various bands with the likes of Alfredo Rodriguez, Miguel Anga Diaz, Dj Dinasty, Caterine Lara, Diego Pelaez, Camillo Azuquita, Orlando Poleo, as well as in Sabor a Son, Raul Paz, Paris Salsa All Star, Mokhtar Samba, and with Beny Suarez y su Son. He shares the stage with well-known artists such as Tito Allen, José Alberto « El Canario », Celia Cruz, Jimmy Bosh, Ernesto Tito Puentes, Roberto Plat group, Jimmy Sabater, Jose Mangual Junior, Roberto Torres. As a singer, he records his first album – « La Charanga » – with the band Cubaïla. Jomed's « Latinoriental » is the second album he performs on with Algerian Singer Hamidou.From then on, he takes part in numerous musical adventures such as percussionist Miguel Anga Diaz's album « Echu Mingua »(2000) and pianist Alfredo Rodriguez y los Asereko's « Cubanjazz » (2001). He records with Enma Baya, Salome de Bahia and Bob Sinclair, North African Groove, Paris Salsa All Star, Sabor a Son. He sings on mix-albums such as Sos Dialogue, Party Mix 1998, Mega Dance Millenium, Cubana Café 1 & 2. • 2002-2005: he founds MAMBI with Carlos Miguel Hernandez, Luis Manresa, Fino Gomez and Yaite Ramos, serving as the band's music director. On MAMBI's first album « Al Machete », he is joined by Tata Guines, José Luis « Changuito » Quintana, Alfredo Rodriguez, Julio Padron, Miguel Anga Diaz, and Franklin Lozada. • 2006: he records with Africando « Ketukuba ». With Michelle Charropin, Alfredo Rodriguez's wife, he produces « Oye Afra » in memoriam Alfredo Rodriguez. • 2007-2014: Ten years after they first played together, Joel re-integrates Roberto Fonseca's band and, as its percussionist, records « Akokan » (2008), « Live in Marciac » (2009), « Yo » (2011, nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2013) and Roberto Fonseca & Fatumata Diawara's « Live in Marciac » (2014). They tour around the world, playing in major festivals and concert venues: Montreal Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz, North Sea Festival, Jazz in Marciac, Jazz à Vienne, Monterrey Jazz Festival,Womad Adelaide in New Zealand, Jazz à Juan Festival in the South of France, Pori Jazz Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival; Sidney Opera House, Blue Note Tokyo, Olympia in Paris, Barbican Hall, Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, and Royal Festival Hall in London, Vienna Konzerthaus, San Francisco Davies Symphony Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, NewYork Highline Ballroom, Duc des Lombards and New Morning in Paris, Luxembourg Philarmonic Hall, as well as many other festivals and concert halls. At the same time, he collaborates with other artists on different projects: Omara Portuondo, Gilles Peterson (Havana Cultura), Alex Terrier (Cuban Project), Mayra Andrade, Ibrahim Malouff, Felipe Cabrera, Munir Hossn, Etienne M'Bappe, Minino Garay (Frapadingos), Véronique Hermann Sambin, Sabor a Son, and his own band Mambí.
