One of todays greatest latin pianists is reflecting on his bandstand learning experiences.
2007 Grammy award nominee
Edsel Gomez is today one of the premier
Latin Jazz pianists in the world.
Born in
Puerto Rico in 1962, he began piano studies at age five. He grew up in a musical environment that allowed him to master afro-Caribbean rhythms in depth, working since childhood with an incredible array of
Latin music idols such as
Marvin Santiago,
Celia Cruz,
Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Santitos
Colon,
Cheo Feliciano,
Roberto Roena,
Willie Colon,
Ismael Rivera Jr
., Luis “Perico” Ortiz, Olga Guillot,
Lola Flores,
Marco Antonio Muñiz, among many others.
He gained a
Bachelor of Music Degree at
Berklee College of Music with a
Count Basie Award for outstanding musicianship in
1985 while expanding his performance credits working with such renown
Jazz artists as
Gary Burton,
Claudio Roditi,
Bill Pierce,
Don Byron,
Chick Corea and
Jerry Gonzalez among many others.
Relocated to
Brazil from
1986 to
1996 he studied extensively
Brazilian Music and worked accompanying such renown artists as
Cauby Peixoto,
Wilson Simonal,
Paulinho da Viola, Amelinha,
Caetano Veloso,
Joao Bosco,
Lucinha Lins,
Angela Maria and Trombonist
Raul de Souza, recording de
Souza’s “
The other side of the moon” (
BMG,Brazil).
Within the Brazilian landscape he worked as a
Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor/
Musical Director of Broadway-like shows, educator, producer and managed his own recording studio/production company. Within a short time, most Brazilian musicians considered him “one of ours.” Gomez’s personal approach to fusing jazz,
Latin and
Brazilian music gives him a unique personality and musical voice.
Since relocating to
New York in
1997, he has been featured in saxophonist
David Sanchez’s “grammy nominated” albums, “
Obsesion”, ”Melaza”, “
Travesia” -(Sony/
Columbia.) and a fourth, the new “
Coral” -LATIN
GRAMMY WINNER (with the
Prague Radio Symphony Orch); Clarinetist Don Byron’s “
Tuskeegee Experiments” (
Electra/Nonesuch,
1994) “
Music for six musicians” and “You are number six”(
Blue Note);
Richard Bona’s “
Scenes from my life” and “
Reverence” (Sony/Columbia) and has toured extensively around the world. Edsel has released an
album dedicated to the music of
Chico Buarque (Celebrating
Chico Buarque de Hollanda,
1999, on Mixhouse, Brazil) and recorded a new album, Cubist Music -(Zoho Music,
2006, produced by Don Byron), featuring Edsel’s original compositions reflecting his own improvisational concept based on Cubist
Art, performed by a stellar group comprised of Clarinetist Don Byron, saxophonists David Sanchez,
Steve Wilson,
Greg Tardy, and
Miguel Zenon, bassist
Drew Gress and
Drummer Bruce Cox.
Edsel works around the world as
Dee Dee Bridgewater’s pianist/arranger, along with new proyects that include
Jack DeJohnette’s “Latin Proyect” featuring
Giovanni Hidalgo, Don Byron, Luisito
Quintero and
Jerome Harris;
Conrad Herwig’s "Latin side of
Miles" (“
Another Kind of Blue-Live at the Blue Note”-Half note records and “The Latin
Side of
Coltrane”-Criss-Cross) featuring
Paquito D’Rivera,
Dave Valentin,
Brian Lynch, Richie
Flores,
Mario Rivera,
Robbie Ammeen and
John Benitez, and a collaboration with Vocalist
Janis Siegel.
- published: 30 Apr 2016
- views: 2