Roland Vazquez

Drummer/composer Roland Vazquez was created in 1951, and upon witnessing a overall performance by Latin jazz conga story Mongo Santamaria in 1963, he was inspired to check out an identical stylistic route. He performed the drum package in a variety of R&B or rock and roll bands around LA, then analyzed at Westminster University in Utah, finding a B.A. He was back L.A. soon thereafter, developing his fusion combos the L.A. Jazz Outfit, aka the Urban Outfit, documenting music that straddled the fence between industrial dance and descarga. Between 1978-1981, he was a prominent sideman with pianist Clare Fischer’s Salsa Picante ensemble, using the group’s 2+2 documenting earning a Grammy. Authorized to the GRP label, Vazquez continuing on the road of fusing Latin, spirit, funk, and bop components, and relocated to NEW YORK where he performed at Seventh Avenue South, Mikell’s, and underneath Line. He trained in the Manhattan College of Music for another decade, in the University or college of Michigan from 2000-2004, and resided in Rome for the next 2 yrs before heading back again to Crimson Hook, NY. The playing and composing design of Vazquez is definitely closely associated with Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican folkloric customs while keeping a boogaloo-flavored backbeat linked to ’70s R&B, while keeping a melodic or harmonic difficulty that mirrors the lively post-bop sounds from the ’60s.