Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his friend and mentor and helped him defect from Cuba while on tour with the United Nations Orchestra. Sandoval became an American naturalized citizen in 1998. His life was the subject of the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000) starring Andy García.
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform music of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Michel Camilo is a Dominican pianist and composer. He specializes in jazz, Latin and classical piano work.
The Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works in the Latin jazz music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Eddie Palmieri is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Corsican and Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.
Giovanni Hidalgo a.k.a. "Mañenguito" is a Latin jazz percussionist.
Lee Conrad Herwig III is an American jazz trombonist from New York City.
David Sánchez is a Grammy-winning jazz tenor saxophonist from Puerto Rico.
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill was a Cuban composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his work in the Latin idiom, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop", although he also composed traditional jazz pieces and even symphonic works.
Brian Lynch is an American jazz trumpeter. He has been a member of Eddie Palmieri's Afro-Caribbean Jazz group and has led the Latin Side of Miles project with trombonist Conrad Herwig.
Caribbean Jazz Project was a Latin jazz band founded in 1993. The original group featured Dave Samuels, Paquito D'Rivera, and Andy Narell. After their second album, D'Rivera and Narell left the group, although both returned as guest stars. Under Samuels' leadership, the group explored different genres of latin jazz with a changing membership and numerous guest artists. The band released nine albums under the Caribbean Jazz Project name and one as the featured backing band for jazz singer Diane Schuur. The final album with Samuels, Afro Bop Alliance, featured the Maryland-based Afro Bop Alliance Big Band led by drummer Joe McCarthy and won the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. McCarthy's latin jazz big band continues to record under its own name, and Samuels retains the group's name.
Horacio "El Negro" Hernández is a Cuban drummer and percussionist. He has played alongside Latin jazz pianists such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Eddie Palmieri and Hilario Durán.
Mario Rivera was a Latin jazz saxophonist from the Dominican Republic. Besides saxophone, Rivera played trumpet, flute, piano, vibraphone, congas, and drums.
Rebeca Mauleón is an American pianist, composer, arranger and writer, specializing in salsa and other Latin American and Afro-Caribbean music.
Michael Philip Mossman is an American jazz trumpeter.
Jerry González was an American bandleader, trumpeter and percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Together with his brother, bassist Andy González, Jerry Gonzalez played an important role in the development of Latin Jazz during the late 20th century. During the 1970s, both brothers played alongside Eddie Palmieri and in Manny Oquendo's Conjunto Libre, and from 1980 to 2018 they directed The Fort Apache Band. From 2000 to 2018, Jerry González resided in Madrid, where he fronted Los Piratas del Flamenco and El Comando de la Clave. In October 2018, he died of a heart attack after a fire in his home in Madrid.
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
Song for Chico is an album by Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, released through Zoho Music in 2008. In 2009, the album won O'Farrill and the group the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.
Edsel Gomez is a Puerto Rican jazz pianist. In 2007, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for the album Cubist Music. He arranged and directed Dee Dee Bridgewater's Grammy-winning recording Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater. He has worked with Jack DeJohnette, Don Byron, Brian Lynch, and Eddie Palmieri.
Angel Rafael "Papo" Vázquez is an American trombonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent who performs and records jazz, Latin and Afro-Caribbean music. He is known as one of the pioneers of the bomba jazz style and is a Grammy Award nominee.
