Bobby Sanabria and Quarteto Ache

Saturday, May 12, 2007 8PM

Wooster School

Reception Centre

Reservations:  203-830-3963

Tickets: Members $30, Non Members $35, Students FREE

Featuring master of Latin Jazz

and “percussionist of the year 2005”

by readers of DRUM! magazine.

Bobby Sanabria is about as exciting a musician as you’ll find anywhere, let alone in our buzzing little parlor, but that’s exactly whom we’ve nabbed to close out this season of jazz. One of the masters of Latin Jazz, this Puerto Rican drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger and educator has received many awards for his performance as well as his work on documentaries about Latin roots music, especially Afro-Cuban.

He 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, Ray Barretto, Chico O’Farrill, Candido, Francisco Aguabella, Henry Threadgill, and the Godfather of Afro-Cuban Jazz, Mario Bauzá.

Born and raised in the “Fort Apache” section of New York City’s South Bronx Sanabria was inspired and encouraged by Maestro Tito Puente, another fellow New York-born Puerto Rican. He “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, as well as numerous television and radio work.

His most critically praised work has been with the famed Mario Bauzá and his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. With them he 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 Bauzá orchestra in two PBS documentaries about Bauzá and also appeared on the Bill Cosby show with the Bauzá orchestra.

In 1993 Mr. Sanabria and Ascensión released NYC Aché! on Flying Fish Records (now available on Rounder Records). It received worldwide acclaim and garnered four and half stars in Down Beat magazine.

His latest recording, ¡Quarteto Aché!, with the group that will come to Wooster Jazz, on the ZOHO label, documents Bobby’s virtuosity in a small group setting and was hailed a “classic” by Modern Drummer magazine and critically acclaimed by the New York Times. It was also nominated for Best Latin Jazz recording of 2003 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Mr. Sanabria was voted “Percussionist of the Year” for 2005 by the readers of DRUM! Magazine, a worldwide publication devoted to drums and percussion.

If all this isn’t enough to get you across our welcome mat and into a seat in front of this master and his ensemble, then have someone forcibly bring you in because you’ll be eternally grateful to them after the first number activates your better judgment!