photo credit: Joe Conzo, Jr.

VIC FIRTH ARTIST
BOBBY SANABRIA

Bobby Sanabria – drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, and educator – has performed with a veritable Who’s Who in the world of jazz and Latin music, as well as with his own critically acclaimed ensemble, Ascensión. His diverse recording and performing experience includes work with such legendary figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Paquito D’Rivera, Charles McPherson, Mongo Santamaría, Chico O’Farrill, Henry Threadgill, and Mario Auza. A Grammy-nominated solo artist, Bobby Sanabria is a leading force in bringing the Afro-Cuban tradition into the 21st century.

Bobby was awarded “Percussionist of the Year” in 2005 by the readers of DRUM! magazine.   bio continues below >


Video Interview with Bobby Sanabria
Including footage from Bobby's "Big Band Urban Folktales" recording session!

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CHECK OUT THE LATEST CD RELEASE FROM BOBBY!

In 2001, Bobby's mainstream Grammy nominated CD, "Live & In Clave!!!" took the Afro-Cuban big band jazz tradition into the 21st century. Now he expands on that tradition with his highly anticipated new release - BIG BAND URBAN FOLKTALES (Jazzheads JH1156).

Bobby and his virtuosic big band take the music into the future with jaw dropping interpretations of the music of Frank Zappa, Hermeto Pascoal, as well as a variety of other new compositions re-defining the art of the big band and the role of the drummer in jazz. Bobby is featured here as composer, arranger and performs on drums, vibes, marimba and a variety of percussion.

Bobby states, "I'm proud to say this recording represents my best work to date. It's an incredible journey for the listener and as Robert Farris Thompson, who wrote the liner notes states; this new CD "...explores an ultimate fusion of jazz, rock, R&B, mambo, samba, bomba, the blues and other fine sounds. It is big band music that treats the world equally with no boundaries, like Mario Bauzá, like Don Ellis, like Afrika Bambataa."

For more information and sound samples, please visit Bobby's official website: http://www.bobbysanabria.com/


Available NOW from iTunes,
In stores on the JazzHeads label 6/5/07

Bobby is using:
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Bobby's Biography, continued


photo credit: Joe Conzo, Jr.

Bobby, the son of Puerto Rican parents, was born and raised in the “Fort Apache” section of New York City’s South Bronx. Inspired and encouraged by Maestro Tito Puente, another fellow New York-born Puerto Rican, Bobby “got serious” and attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music from 1975 to 1979, obtaining a bachelor of music degree. He received their prestigious Faculty Association Award for his work as an
instrumentalist.

Since his graduation, Bobby has become a leader in the Afro-Cuban and jazz fields as both drummer and percussionist and is recognized as one of the most articulate scholars of la tradición. He has been featured on numerous Grammy-nominated albums, including The Mambo Kings and
other movie soundtracks, and numerous television and radio jingles. His most critically praised work has been with the famed Mario Bauzá and his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. With them he has recorded three Grammy nominated CDs, considered to be the definitive works of the Afro-Cuban big-band jazz tradition.

Mr. Sanabria was also featured with the Mario Bauza orchestra in two PBS documentaries about Bauza; he also appeared on the Bill Cosby show. He appeared prominently in a PBS documentary on the life of Mongo Santamaria and on camera in the CBS television movie Rivkin: Bounty Hunter. Mr. Sanabria has been the recipient of many awards, including an NEA grant as a jazz performer, various Meet the Composer awards, and the INTAR off-Broadway composer award. Most recently he has received the Mid-Atlantic Foundation Arts Connect Grant for three successive years.

In 1993 Mr. Sanabria and Ascensión released their CD, NYC Aché! on Flying Fish Records. The album contains many tunes he has composed and/or arranged, tracing the rhythms from their African roots to the sounds of New York City. It received worldwide acclaim and garnered four and half stars in Down Beat magazine, as well as receiving a nomination for best record of the year by the National Association of Independent
Record Distributors (NAIRD). In June 2000 Bobby released Afro-Cuban Dream... Live & In Clave!!! on the Arabesque label. Recorded live at Birdland in New York City, it features Bobby powering a big bead of twenty all-stars.

The critically acclaimed album has been hailed by both the jazz and Latin music cognoscenti as a masterpiece, and nominated for a Grammy as the Best Latin Jazz Album of 2001. Afro-Cuban Dream...Live & In Clave!!! was also nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association 2001 Award for the Best Afro-Cuban Jazz Album of the Year. His recording ¡Quarteto Aché!, released October 2002 on the Khaeon World Music label, documents Bobby’s virtuosity and hailed a “classic” by Modern Drummer magazine.

In addition to being Chair of IAJE’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Resource Team, Mr. Sanabria is rounding out his tenth year as an Associate Professor at the New School University and since 1999, Professor at Manhattan School of Music.
 


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