Home » Jazz Musicians » Mauricio Herrera

Mauricio Herrera

Mauricio Herrera is one of the leading percussionists on New York’s Afro-Cuban jazz scene. He’s collaborated with some of the best jazz musicians of our time, including Stefon Harris, Nicholas Payton, David Sanchez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Christian Scott, and Yosvany Terry. But his connections to the sacred roots of Afro-Cuban music run deep, and he masterfully fuses traditional forms and techniques with an adventurous, wide-open approach.

Growing up in the eastern province of Holguin, Cuba, Maruicio was exposed to the deep traditions of sacred and ritual music. His family is very musical, and at age 7 he started on violin, but by 14 began studying percussion, where he found his niche. After graduation from the Jose Maria Ochoa Conservatory in Holguin, he began playing in various local popular and folkloric groups and was on faculty at Escuela Vocacional de Arte. In 1994 he moved to La Habana to broaden his horizons, where he played, toured, and recorded with artists such as Hector Valentin, Angel Bonne, La Barriada, Paulito FG, Manolito Simonet, ManoliÃÅn el Medico de la salsa, Pachito Alonso. In 2001 he relocated to Mexico where he played with several projects including Otra Idea Orquestra, Amaury Gutierrez, David Torrens, and many others.

In 2005, Mauricio moved to New York where he currently resides. He has played, recorded, and toured with an astonishing range of jazz and Afro-Cuban and Caribbean artists, from the in-the-pocket arrangements of flutist Mark Weinstein to the outside, ritual-influenced work of pianist David Virelles. His credits read like a who’s-who of jazz, including David Sanchez, Stefon Harris, Nicholas Payton, Christian Scott – 90 Miles Project, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ignacio Berroa, Yerba Buena, Lila Downs, Manuel Valera and the New Cuban Express, Alfredo de la Fe, Bryan Lynch, Luis Perdomo, The Rodriguez Brothers, Dave Samuels and The Caribbean Jazz Project, Hector Martignon, Batyr Shukenov, La India, Spanish Harlem Orquestra, Steve Coleman, Jackie Terrasson, John Benitez, Mark Weinstein, Lew Soloff, Aruan Ortiz, Candido Camero, Yerba Buena, Osmany Paredes, Yosvany Terry, Pedro Martinez y Grupo Ibboru, Cimarron project, Francisco Mela, and many others.

Joining the SJW faculty for the first time, Mauricio is a committed educator, having taught at the Boys and Girls Harbour Conservatory in New York City, as well as giving master classes at the Banff Centre, at the Berklee College of Music, and JAZZUV Xalapa University.

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34
Album Review

Dave Schumacher & Cubeye: Smoke in the Sky

Read "Smoke in the Sky" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Chicago-bred, New York-based baritone saxophonist Dave Schumacher leans heavily toward Latin melodies and rhythms on Smoke in the Sky, his recording of an able septet he has dubbed Cubeye. Contemporary jazz lies at the core of Schumacher's cross- cultural endeavor, one that his like-minded teammates take readily to heart while lending their insight and expertise to the largely warm and engaging enterprise. While Schumacher's burly baritone, reminiscent of Pepper Adams, Ronnie Cuber, Nick Brignola, Gary Smulyan, Cecil ...

5
Album Review

Michael Eckroth Group: Human Geography

Read "Human Geography" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Grammy-nominated pianist/composer Micael Eckroth follows up his highly acclaimed Plena (Truth Revolution Records, 2021) with the vibrant and robust Human Geography, melding the sounds of contemporary jazz with elements of Afro-Caribbean music while exploring his affinity for the Latin sound and “paying homage to the culture of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the vast amalgam that comprise jazz." An Assistant Professor of music, jazz piano at Florida International University, Eckroth's geographical location in the diverse Anglo and mixed Hispanic community of ...

19
Album Review

Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch

Read "Breaking Stretch" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


On her first two albums, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan worked with a quartet comprised of three percussion instruments, herself on vibes and marimba, joined by percussionist Mauricio Herrera and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with a bassist Kim Cass. Momentum in large part, is the name of the game. For Breaking Stretch she expands her musical universe, adding trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and saxophonists Mark Shim and Jon Irabagon. This proved a good move; her musical universe in this septet setting has an energy ...

14
Album Review

Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch

Read "Breaking Stretch" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Wild-willed vibraphonist Patricia Brennan gets straight down to business without any fanciful mission declaration with the Afro-Cuban, effusively powered, clear-the-dancefloor and blow-the-ceiling-off this joint “Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves)," the opening cut of her third album Breaking Stretch. She does so in a captivatingly, wickedly good way. Brennan--who has added much vitality to music by such other big thinkers as Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Michael Formanek--began her musical education at 4 years old listening to ...

13
Album Review

Patricia Brennan: More Touch

Read "More Touch" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It's uncanny how More Touch, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan's scarily good follow-up to her head-turning debut Maquishti (Valley of Search, 2021) follows one around all day. Its essence is in the air, in the room, in the conversation. It sneaks around the corner and races down the stairs, out into the street, and breaks into any and all of the machinations that drive the day. Born of its own fevered animation, the music on More Touchis brazen. Atmospheric yet ...

7
Album Review

Michael Eckroth Group: Plena

Read "Plena" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Michael Eckroth had clear goals in mind for this project--"to create music that was lyrical, modern, true to its Afro-Latin roots, but never purist in its approach"--and he's accomplished his mission with gusto. Through Plena, this Grammy-nominated pianist/composer delivers a program of original music that, while acknowledging folkloric traditions, doesn't buy into their formal strictures and structures. Instead, Eckroth deals in forward-thinking offshoots and branch realities that beautifully extend on--and past--those points. Essentially working with two different ...

10
Album Review

Robby Ameen: Diluvio

Read "Diluvio" reviewed by Jack Bowers


It's a given that wherever Grammy-winning drummer Robby Ameen goes, irrepressible rhythm is sure to follow. Diluvio, Ameen's third album as leader of his own ensemble, is clearly no exception to the rule. Ameen's half-dozen compositions are intrepid and lively, and even Gerry Mulligan's “Line for Lyons" and John Coltrane's “Impressions," which seal the album, are given bright rhythmic makeovers in keeping with the leader's metrical frame of mind. To lend color and variety, Ameen employs a ...

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Smoke in the Sky

Cellar Music Group
2025

buy

Breaking Stretch

Pyroclastic Records
2024

buy

Human Geography

Truth Revolution Records
2024

buy

Spellbound

Origin Records
2023

buy

Standing by The...

ArtistShare
2022

buy

More Touch

Pyroclastic Records
2022

buy

Breaking Stretch

From: Breaking Stretch
By Mauricio Herrera

Spellbound

From: Spellbound
By Mauricio Herrera

Unquiet Respect

From: More Touch
By Mauricio Herrera

Lucero Mundo

From: Inside Rhythmic Falls
By Mauricio Herrera

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