“The most prodigious trumpeter of his
generation”
–Guardian, UK

Like his mentor Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is equally gifted as a performer and entertainer. His Grammy-winning discography contains work as a founding member of the cuban supergroup Irakere, classical recordings, and the score for the HBO biopic of his life and defection from Cuba, For Love or Country. He’s taken full advantage of America’s opportunities, recording a remarkable string of albums exploring various aspects of Cuban music, modern jazz and his singular synthesis of the two traditions. He’s also a talented pianist, skilled percussionist, and enthusiastic singer known for crooning a standard or two.

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Like his mentor Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is equally gifted as a performer and entertainer. His Grammy-winning discography contains work as a founding member of the Cuban supergroup Irakere, classical recordings, and the score for the HBO biopic of his dramatic life, For Love or Country, which recounts his flight from Cuba. He has taken full advantage of America’s opportunities, recording a remarkable string of albums exploring various aspects of Cuban music, modern jazz and his singular synthesis of the two traditions. He is also a talented pianist, skilled percussionist, and enthusiastic singer known for crooning a standard or two.

Growing up in a town outside of Havana, Sandoval fell in love with the trumpet as a young teenager. He showed considerable promise, which led to three years of classical studies at the Cuban National School for the Arts. While modern jazz albums were hard to come by, and playing jazz was strongly discouraged by the government, Sandoval became obsessed with the music and modeled his wildly extroverted approach after Gillespie’s. Resisting the government’s conservative approach to art, Sandoval joined pianist Chucho Valdes and reed master Paquito D’Rivera in founding Irakere, a seminal band that combined folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythms with rock, jazz, and funk. By 1981, Sandoval had gone solo, spreading his own vision of Cuban-inflected modern jazz. While he toured the world as a featured soloist, performing with jazz combos and symphony orchestras, it is only since defecting in 1990 that he’s fully explored his extravagant array of musical passions.

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