12 Shows, 4 Days And A Whole Lotta Jazz!!!

Ray San­tos

The 26th edi­tion of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest will take place from Thurs­day, March 17 to Sun­day, March 20, at the Tito Puente Amphithe­ater in San Juan. This year, the fes­ti­val will have a var­ied musi­cal offer­ing, includ­ing the intro­duc­tion of HEINEKEN THE LAB, an exper­i­men­tal pro­pos­al that will com­bine jazz with oth­er musi­cal gen­res on the first night (Thurs­day). Dur­ing the four-day event, many world acclaimed jazz musi­cians will take the stage to per­form live. On Sun­day, some of the guest musi­cians will unite in a trib­ute to jazz’s king of mam­bo and this year’s hon­oree, Ray San­tos. Under the direc­tion of Hum­ber­to Ramírez, the musi­cians will be pre­sent­ed as the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest Big Band.

Thursday, March 17:

Hen­ry Cole

8:00PM — Hen­ry Cole & Vil­la Locu­ra - Grad­u­at­ed from the Con­ser­va­to­rio de Músi­ca de Puer­to Rico and renowned music school Berklee Col­lege of Music, Cole returns for the sec­ond time to the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest. This time around as the open­ing act of the fes­ti­val. The musi­cian, who will debut the new con­cept HEINEKEN THE LAB, is known for his fusion of jazz with oth­er gen­res like sal­sa, rum­ba, ple­na, funk and rock. This led him to share the stage with impor­tant music groups and to receive the sup­port of leg­endary pro­duc­er, Quin­cy Jones, who he claims as one of his heroes. For this occa­sion, Cole will light up the stage with his group Vil­la Locu­ra, com­posed of: Mario Cas­tro (Tenor), Ricar­do Pons (Bari­tone), Luis Rodríguez (Elec­tric Bass), Gabriel Vicens (Gui­tar), Ben­son Pagán (Gui­tar), Alber­to Tor­rens (Bar­rel), Bryant Huff­man (Chekere), Oban­ilu Iré Allende (Bar­rel and Voice), Kily Vial­iz (Voice and Per­cus­sion), Jonathan Pow­ell (Trum­pet), Jere­my Bosh (Voice), and Negro González (Voice\Rap).

Pir­u­lo

9:30 PM — Pir­u­lo Trib­al Jazz Expe­ri­ence — With his enter­tain­ing musi­cal offer, Pir­u­lo debuts at the Jaz­zFest stage after a year of unstop­pable suc­cess. The pro­duc­er, per­cus­sion­ist, and com­pos­er, also a grad­u­ate from Berklee Col­lege of Music in Boston, has worked with a very diverse group of artists, rang­ing from music leg­end Bob Dylan, to Vico C and Tego Calderón, mak­ing him the per­fect fit for THE LAB.

DJ Guti Talavera

11:00 PM — DJ Guti Talav­era — Clos­ing HEINEKEN THE LAB will be Puer­to Rican DJ Guti Talav­era. Based in Mia­mi, the DJ will present his Hip Hop Jazz Live Show, where he will join forces with 3 fel­low musi­cians to cre­ate a fusion of pro­gres­sive rhythms. DJ Talav­era will be accom­pa­nied by a sax­o­phon­ist, trum­peter, and Joel Pier­luisi (Dan­ger Gar­den). The pro­duc­er and expert in plates will inte­grate his dis­tinc­tive “scratch­ing” tech­nique as part of this inno­v­a­tive closing.

Friday, March 18:

Char­lie Sepúlveda

8:00 PM — Char­lie Sepúlve­da & The Turn­around — Puer­to Rican trum­peter Char­lie Sepúlve­da has become a jazz pro­peller in his land with eleven record­ings as a soloist and work­ing as a pro­fes­sor in the Con­ser­va­to­rio de Músi­ca de Puer­to Rico. His unique and melod­ic styles led his way par­tic­i­pat­ing in big latin jazz record­ings with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Hilton Ruiz and Dave Valen­tín. The expe­ri­enced musi­cian will be joined by Nor­ber­to Ortiz (Piano), Gabriel Rodríguez (Bass), Fran­cis­co Alcalá (Drums), Gar­win Var­gas (Con­ga drums) and Bien­venido Dinzey (Sax­o­phone) as the open­ing act of the sec­ond day of the festival.

Ralph Irizarry

9:30 PM — Ralph Irizarry – Tim­bal­aye — Known as the tim­panist with the great­est swing, Irizarry will be per­form­ing dur­ing the sec­ond night of the fes­ti­val with his group “Tim­bal­aye”. His cred­its include five record­ings along­side Ray Bar­reto, as well as an excel­lent musi­cal rela­tion­ship with Rubén Blades and Seis del Solar, with whom he col­lab­o­rat­ed for thir­teen years. Oth­er part­ner­ships include artists like David Byrne, Paul Simon, Har­ry Bela­fonte, Earl Klugh, Juan Luis Guer­ra, Cachao, Celia Cruz, and Yomo Toro. Cel­e­brat­ing 20 years with his septet will be fel­low musi­cians Den­nis Hernán­dez (Trum­pet), Aníbal Rojas (Sax­o­phone), Hom­my Ramos (Trom­bone), Rober­to Quin­tero (Con­ga drums), Alexan­der Ayala (Bass), and Adán Pérez (Piano).

Luis Sali­nas

11:00 PM — Luis Sali­nas Quin­tet — A gui­tar expert and pas­sion­ate for the musi­cal fusion, Sali­nas has demon­strat­ed his abil­i­ty in music since his ear­ly stages where he self-taught the instru­ment that has now earned him a spot as a big con­tender in the jazz music indus­try. The Argen­tin­ian musi­cian has worked with the great singer Mer­cedes Sosa, who expressed that “it is a joy work­ing and lis­ten­ing to Luis’s sub­tle and melod­ic voice”. He will be accom­pa­nied by Arge­nis Luis Peña (Drums, Per­cus­sion and Fla­men­co box), Alex Tosca Lau­gart (Piano and Key­board), Ricar­do José Martínez (Elec­tric bass), and as a spe­cial guest, his son, Juan Sali­nas (Elec­tric guitar).

Saturday, March 19:

José “Furi­to” Ríos

8:00 PM — Jose “Furi­to” Ríos & Stan­dard Bom­ba — If you were to take a look at Furito’s resume, you’ll find a wide vari­ety of abil­i­ties and expe­ri­ence. Skill­ful in the sax­o­phone, the flute, pic­co­lo, and clar­inet, Ríos also excels as a com­pos­er and arranger. His diver­si­ty has led him to par­tic­i­pate in over 300 record­ings with artists from dif­fer­ent musi­cal gen­res, like Ray Bar­reto and Arturo San­doval in jazz, Celia Cruz and Bob­by Valen­tín in sal­sa, and Fran­co de Vita and Mar­co Anto­nio Solís in pop­u­lar music, just to name a few. He has played in var­i­ous Broad­way musi­cals, as well as with the Sym­phon­ic Orches­tras from Puer­to Rico and the Bronx. He knows no lim­its when it comes to his ded­i­ca­tion to music. Dur­ing the Jaz­zFest, he will play his most recent pro­duc­tion, “Stan­dard Bom­ba”, with Ramón Luis Irizarry (Bass and Elec­tric bass), Juan Luis Anglero (Piano), Jim­my Rivera (Drums), Omar “Pipo” Sánchez (Bar­rel pump, mara­cas and cuá), Hec­tor Calderón (Bar­rel pump, mara­cas and cuá), Raúl Rodríguez (Bar­rel Pump), Gio­van­na Sosa (Mod­ern dancer), and Mil­ton Cordero (Dig­i­tal Artist and Programmer).

Anto­nio Sánchez

9:30 PM — Anto­nio Sánchez & Migra­tion — The Mex­i­can musi­cian is cat­a­logued as one of the most influ­en­tial drum­mers in today’s music indus­try. With the recog­ni­tion he gained after his nom­i­na­tions for Best Orig­i­nal Score dur­ing 2015 Gold­en Globes and BAFTA for the movie Bird­man, who won the Oscar for best movie, Sánchez has ben­e­fit­ed from his well-deserved suc­cess to pro­mote two new and unique pro­duc­tions, along­side his group Migra­tion, with whom he’ll debut in Puer­to Rico dur­ing the third night of the fes­ti­val. The group is made up of Anto­nio Sánchez (Direc­tor and Drums), John Escreet (Piano), Matt Brew­er (Bass), Thana Alexa (Voice), and Sea­mus Blake (Sax­o­phone).

Paquito D’Rivera

11:00 PM — Paquito D’Rivera Ensem­ble — Clos­ing on Sat­ur­day night will be one of the biggest Latin jazz fig­ures in the world. The Cuban sax­o­phon­ist, clar­inetist, and musi­cal direc­tor returns to the Heineken Jaz­zfest to cel­e­brate his more than six decades of musi­cal career. In his life­time he has played bossa nova and tan­go, par­tic­i­pat­ed in com­po­si­tions for phil­har­mon­ic orches­tras, and played trib­ute to many influ­en­tial artists. This shows in his last pro­duc­tion where he plays trib­ute to the clas­sic boleros of com­pos­er Arman­do Man­zanero. D’Rivera will share the stage with Alex Brown (Piano), Oscar R. Stag­naro (Elec­tric bass), Mark Walk­er (Drums), Per­nell Luciano Sat­urni­no (Per­cus­sion), and Vic­tor Provost (Steel drum).

Sunday, March 20:

Berklee In Puer­to Rico — Equi Castrillo

5:00 PM — Berklee in Puer­to Rico — Our Island may be small in size but huge in tal­ent. Direct­ed by Eguie Cas­tril­lo, the Puer­to Rican stu­dents that have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty of study­ing and learn­ing in one of the most impor­tant music schools in the world, Berklee Col­lege of Music, will take the Jaz­zFest stage on its last day. The young musi­cians that will play on Sun­day are: Manuel E. Cas­tril­lo (Con­gas and Tim­bales), David E. Suleiman Oroz­co (Sax­o­phone, Tenor), Orlan­do A. Latorre (Trum­pet), Joseph Omar Rivera (Piano), Jonathan Salas Rodríguez (Drums), and Flavio Lira de Oliveira (Bass).

Rober­ta Gambarini

6:00 PM — Rober­ta Gam­bari­ni Quar­tet — Influ­enced by the music of the great Louis Arm­strong, Ella Fitzger­ald, and Bil­lie Hol­i­day, the Ital­ian singer moved to the Unit­ed States in 1988 to pur­sue a career in music while study­ing in the New Eng­land Con­ser­va­to­ry of Boston. Her career took flight quick­ly, becom­ing a recur­ring act in the North Amer­i­can jazz fes­ti­vals. Gam­bari­ni will be joined by Cyrus Chest­nut (Piano), John Web­ber (Bass), and Vic­tor Lews (Drums).

Ray San­tos

7:30 PM — Ray San­tos Trib­ute — Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest Big Band: Direct­ed by Hum­ber­to Ramírez, a group of guest musi­cians will play trib­ute to the mas­ter of mam­bo, Mr. Ray San­tos, this year’s hon­oree dur­ing the PR Heineken JazzFest.

Tickets On Sale!!!

Tick­ets for the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest are avail­able for sale. Prices vary depend­ing on a per-day basis. Prices begin at $15.00, up to $75.00 for the Jaz­zPass, a spe­cial pass that allows patrons to enjoy all four days for less than $25.00 a day plus a 15-minute fast track entrance before the gen­er­al pub­lic. Prices list­ed below do not include ser­vice charges nor tax­es (IVU).

Thurs­day, March 17- $10.00 (Stu­dents with I.D.)/ $15.00 (Gen­er­al Public)
Fri­day, March 18- $25.00
Sat­ur­day, March 19- $25.00
Sun­day, March 20- $30.00

Jazz Pass (Full four-day access to the fes­ti­val with 15 fast track entrance) $75.00

Tick­ets are avail­able at www.ticketpop.com and at La Bode­ga de Mén­dez & Com­pañía in Guayn­abo (787) 277‑5880, Ponce (787) 651‑1999, or Añas­co (787) 826‑7570.

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For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest, vis­it the web­site www.prheinekenjazz.com.

©2016,Orlando Mer­gal, MA
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