Joseph Salvatore Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 29, 1952 and grew up in a very musical household. His dad, Tony, aka Big T, was a barber by day and a big-toned tenor player at night. “Big T,” along with his brothers Nick and Joe, other tenor players, and Carl, a bebop trumpeter, made sure Joe’s exposure to Jazz and the saxophone were early and constant.
Joe’s mom, Josephine, and her sister Rose were serious listeners, as well. His Mom remembers hearing Big T play opposite Stan Getz and Flip Phillips when they were engaged. And Aunt Rose went to hear Jazz at the Philharmonic with Ella Fitzgerald when they came through Cleveland…
[br]
Ignacio Berroa has been recognized by many as one of the greatest drummers of our times. His numerous contributions to the American music scene have earned him a place among a selected group of artists known to have set new musical trends for the 20th century.
Jazz Legend Dizzy Gillespie best defined Ignacio as: “… the only Latin drummer in the world in the history of American music that intimately knows both worlds: his native Afro Cuban music as well as Jazz…”
Highly respected among his peers, Ignacio’s musicianship and versatility has enabled him to build a successful career by gaining the recognition of some of the most important artists in the business.
Ignacio Berroa was born in Havana…
[br]
Legendary percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo was born in Puerto Rico in 1963 and grew up in home filled with the drums, bongos, congas and timbales used by his father and grandfather, both musicians themselves.
Hidalgo began playing on a homemade conga crafted by his father from a wooden barrel, when he was just eight years old. He also practiced on other percussion instruments, applying his great talent to become one of the top Latin percussionists in the world today. The sounds other drummers create with sticks, Hidalgo creates with his hands. His lightning-fast precision is particularly admired by others…
[br]
The Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI) is a creative music institute part of Berklee Collegue of Music in Boston USA with a progressive vision to develop the artists of the new millennium and teaches various musical disciplines, with pianist and composer Danilo Pérez as its artistic director.
The BGJI provides a comprehensive contemporary music environment where students are given opportunities to explore their creativity to the highest level possible, advance the power of music as a tool for the betterment of society, and connect musical creative thinking with the natural environment…
[br]
Marco Pignataro is a Boston based multi-talented saxophone player, composer and educator originally from Bologna, Italy. Marco maintains a very active international schedule of concerts, recordings and clinics and he has shared stages with artists such Eddie Gomez, Joanne Brackeen, Danilo Perez, George Garzone, John Patitucci, Kenwood Dennard, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Street, Billy Drummond, Billy Hart, Clark Terry and Jon Faddis, among others. As a leader, Marco performs with several musical groups including the Marco Pignataro Jazzet, the Up-South Project and the Marco Pignataro Trio Más (+)…
Marco is currently the Managing Director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), the premiere jazz program at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Together with Danilo Perez as Artistic Director, Marco leads the BGJI as a center of musical creativity with an intensive access to world-class visiting artists. BGJI faculty includes Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, George Garzone and Ben Street among other prominent jazz artists…
[br]
Ramón Vazquez is a refined Caribbean bassist, educator and producer. Born in Cuba and raised in Puerto Rico, Vázquez has been working in live performances and recordings with countless local and international artists in different musical genres. In Jazz with Jerry Gonzalez, Chick Corea, Chucho Valdes, Giovanni Hidalgo, Dave Valentin and many more. In the Latin American and Spanish folk music with such latin greats as Ismael Miranda, Andy Montañez, Plácido Domingo, Enrique Iglesias, Cristian Castro, among others. In addition he has collaborated with the Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico as Electric Bassist and special guest.
[br] [br]
Krency Garcia was born in 1976 in the Dominican Republic. Son of the accordionist Luis Garcia, Krency began playing harmonic melodies on his father’s accordion at the age of five. At ten years of age, he won an accordionist festival. It was at this time that Professor Samuel Garcia recognized the talent and versatility of young Krency and gave him the nickname The Prodigy, and became his artistic promoter. Krency Garcia recorded his first single “No te vayas en yola” under his father’s direction at eleven years of age.
Krency went to New York at age fifteen to study musical theory and high saxophone at the Martin Luther King School. He studied singing at the Harlem School of the Arts, as well as online studies of theory and harmony at the famous Berklee College of Music. This formal musical training enabled the young talent to reach his potential as an original and authentic artist getting rid of certain limitating traditional musical codes. Krency participated in the Omega Arts Festival with the Psi Phi Fraternity Inc, representing New York, and won first place for two consecutive years.
[br]
Patricia Pereyra is a Dominican singer of “fusion music”. This fusion is based in many different genres; and her interpretations include dramatic histrionics, presenting a fusion of elements that go from jazz, blues, rock, world music and many other musical tendencies of the modern classic. She has participated many times in different national and international musical festivals. Patricia Pereyra has received numerous awards and was honored with the International Casandra Award in 2011 for her distinct contributions to Dominican Republic musical culture…
[br]
Rafaelito Mirabal was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1962 and grew up and studied in Santiago. Most of his experience comes from self-taught musical practices. He has performed with nearly all the famous bands since 1985 and has visited more than twenty five countries. He has produced and composed music for over two hundred commercial jingles for radio and television. He was the keyboardist of the most famous Dominican artist, Juan Luis Guerra. From 1999 to 2006 he composed and recorded the music for the permanent exhibits of the Caribbean’s most important cultural centre “Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenez” in Santiago.
Rafaelito Mirabal has been the musical director of the festival ” Live Art ” since 1999 , which takes place every year in Santiago and has become the most genuine and authentic expression of the entire northern region of the Dominican Republic art…
[br]
Guy Frómeta was born in 1965, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At the age of five years old, he began playing the drums. His interest in music is a family tradition, being the nephew of Billo Frómeta, the Dominican orchestra director who settled in Venezuela. Guy studied with the teachers Joel Rosenblatt, Zach Danziger and Sam Ulano.
In 1983, Luis Dias introduced Guy to Transporte Urbano, a musical group that he remained connected with. During the same time period in the 1980s, he worked with the group OFS of Juan Francisco de Ordonez and was also the drummer of artists such as Sonia Silvestre and Patricia Pereyra, among others. Guy spent some time living in New York, where he performed and has since returned to Santo Domingo…
[br]
Alex is a modern jazz guitarist with a driving penchant for originality, daring and challenge. Born in France, he is renowned for his amazing ability to blend into any musical scenario. Alex has played in a number of eclectic bands such as the electro-rock ensemble Zend Avesta, the Brazilian group Vitto and the world music band Canaïma. He also played throughout Europe in major venues and festivals, and recorded a number of albums in ever-changing styles.
Alex is an ambitious player, composer, arranger and band leader, that brought his skills to the United States to delevop deeper into shaping his own style and sound. His most profound progress in this direction can be heard on his completely original new double CD concept album, “First and Last Light”.
[br]
Fernando Echavarria is the creator, lead singer and director of the group Familia André. He is one of the most respected Dominican songwriters, and well-known for the trajectory of his compositions. His songs are current with contemporary Dominican music and are recognized as Afro-Caribbean and Latin American influenced. Fernando Echeverria supports the philosophy of all people having the opportunity to participate in the creative process of producing popular music, new melodies, and new musical themes with original lyrics for all to enjoy. The Familia André has presented a positive image to youth and created music that has captivated all ages and backgrounds…
[br]
Colin Hunter singing with Joe Sealy’s Quartet
An accomplished ‘crooner’ in the style of Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Tony Bennett, with several released CD’s one of which made the “Top Jazz Albums in Canada” list, Colin has performed, and continues to perform, in various music venues across Canada, the US and internationally. Then in April 2013, Colin was front and centre at the opening of the Jazz Bistro – a jazz club and restaurant that he opened in the heart of downtown Toronto which has quickly become a popular favourite for music lovers, both local and visiting…
Joe Sealy’ Quartet
For more than five decades Joe Sealy has enjoyed a successful career as a musician, actor, composer, music director and recording artist. Tours have also played a significant part in Joe’s career. Some of the more notable ones include: six months on the road with Blood, Sweat and Tears; a 19 concert tour of Africville Suite (including an appearance at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.); a 20 city national tour of Timothy Findlay’s Piano Man’s Daughter (along with Veronica Tennant and Sylvia Tyson); and a 2 week tour of Norway and Denmark including a performance at the world famous Jazz House in Copenhagen…
[br]
Big Band Santo Domingo Conservatory
Big Band of the National Conservatory of Music is under the direction of Javier Vargas a musician, composer, musical arranger and Professor at the National Conservatory of Music.
The twenty members of the band perform concerts in the style of Big Band, which became extremely popular during the “Swing Era”, from the beginning of the 1930s to the end of the 1940s, and prevails to this day…
[br] [br]
Edgar Molina from Dominican Republic started percussion in 1998, as part of major music groups of his country such as the Ballet Folklorico APEC University, Marassa Group and Drum Major. His interest in typical, local music led him to explore the rhythms of Haiti on the neighboring nation of the island of Hispaniola. Edgar Molina continued his training as a percussionist and became part of the well-known group “Tadeo Marcoy Batucaribe¨ where his interest in Afro- Brazilian music received recognition.
In 2001 Edgar Molina entered the National Conservatory of Music and from then on, his career as a musician blosomed with different groups and recordings both nationally and internationally…
[br]
Benny Martínez is a Christian guitarist and producer who was born and was raised in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. He began playing the guitar when he was seventeen years old, and was self-taught for his first years playing. Pursuing classical training, he studied at classic guitar at the “Institute of Culture and Art “ICA” in the Dominican Republic. His formal training helped him to develop his talent with the practical discipline and training required to excel as an artist…
[br] [br]
Miguel Fenton
Special guest of Pat Pereyra group playing on thursday night in Puerto Plata:
MIGUEL FENTON is a Dominican percussionist, living in Montreal Canadá, he will be giving a workshop of African percussion during the Festival, together with Maestro Geo Ripley. The workshop will take place on Thursday, November 6th at 10.00 am within the Renovacion school in Puerto Plata.
[br] [br]
Eric Litman began playing saxophone at the age of 6 years, for more than 40 years he has been playing such a wide musical repertoire, that there is not enough space to mention it all. Eric has had the privilege of studying with the great saxophonist Jackie McLean, during the 1980s as a private student, to whom he gives all the credit for developing his own sound and to achieve his own style, a style strongly unique and very melodic.
Eric lived in Los Angeles from the end of the 80’s of until 92, where has started to use the name Wavelength for his band. During his time in Los Angeles, Eric has developed mostly original compositions with the Argentine arranger Marcelo Berestevoy and the Dominican Richard Gómez…
