John Santos & the Machete Ensemble

b. 1 November l955, SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, California, USA. Of blended Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean parentage, Santos grew up in the musical and creative hotbed of San Francisco’s Bay Region. Among the most important exponents of Afro-Latin jazz, he’s a respected instructor, historian and article writer about them and an associate from the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee from the Smithsonian Organization, aswell as a forward thinking percussionist, arranger, manufacturer and composer. His research from the music possess led to many excursions to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia. He continues to be the first choice of three groupings: Orquesta Típica Cienfuegos (l976-1980), Orquesta Batachanga (1981-1985), as well as the Machete Outfit, which he shaped in 1985 (known for the initial 2 yrs as the Afro-Cuban Jazz Outfit). Santos in addition has performed and documented with lots of the big brands of jazz (including Dizzy Gillespie, Utmost Roach, Bobby Hutcherson) and giants from the Latin picture (Israel ‘Cachao’ López, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Irakere, Santana, Cal Tjader), and shaped a dynamic relationship with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa. Santos offers recorded several albums using the Machete Outfit, including Africa: Quantity 1, Machetazo! A DECADE On The Advantage, and Tribute TOWARDS THE Masters. The second option is devoted both towards the greats of jazz (with imaginatively organized cover variations of items by Gillespie, Kilometers Davis, Charlie ‘Parrot’ Parker and John Coltrane) also to all those involved with keeping Afro-Latin tradition alive, who form the motivation for the clutch of Santos originals.