Tino Contreras

Drummer, bandleader, composer, and evening membership owner Fortino Contreras González was created into a music family members in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico on Apr 3, 1924. Contreras shaped his initial music group, Cadetes del Golf swing, at the sensitive age group of 15 and produced his professional debut with Luis Alcaraz’s Latin golf swing orchestra in the first ’50s. During this time period he also used fellow Mexican jazz maverick Juan García Esquivel. In 1954 Contreras was a respected player within the initial contemporary jazz recordings in his house country, that have been captured for the Jazz en Mexico compilation. It had been very clear from his debut, nevertheless, 1953’s Volado por los Merengues (which have been musically motivated by a visit to the Dominican Republic), that Contreras was under no circumstances going to be considered a straight-ahead jazzer. In 1957 Contreras shaped the very first iteration of his Quartet, the documenting and touring device that could persist for this day. The next stream of produces reflected an nearly bewildering selection of affects as Contreras strove to meld jazz with different Latin musical forms, including Mesoamerican spiritual choral chants and instrumentation, lounge, waltz, psychedelia, and designs from every part of the world (specifically India, Turkey, and Egypt) reflecting Contreras’ globe-trotting itinerary. Crucial albums consist of Jazz Tropical (1962), Jazz Ballet (1963), and Misa en Jazz (1966). Features from Contreras’ different and hard-to-source catalog had been expertly compiled for the U.K. label Jazzman’s compilation, Un Jazz Mexicano de Tino Contreras (2011). Despite his imaginative and luxurious experimentation, Contreras continued to be a champion from the jazz type in Mexico. He earned the National Celebration of Jazz award each year between 1959 and 1966, and he provides taught and operate night clubs in his homeland. Today in his nineties, Contreras is constantly on the play, record, and receive reputation for his contribution to Mexican jazz and beyond.