Pedrito Martinez Group
Saturday, September 23
TIME: 7:15-8:30PM
VENUE: west stage. midway plaisance at south ellis ave.
Five band members of the Pedrito Martinez Group posing together against a brick wall with graffiti, followed by an image of Pedrito Martinez wearing a black bowler hat and a black tank top with his arms crossed in front of him.
PEDRITO MARTiNEZ
Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba, in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood, where rumba is played all day long. A consummate master of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the batá drum, he is now the world’s first-call rumbero—playing, singing, and dancing with dozens of Cuban rumba groups.
Since settling in New York City in 1998, Martinez has recorded or performed with Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Bruce Springsteen, Ruben Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Matthews, Sting, and many others, and has contributed to over 75 albums. He was a founding member of the highly successful Afro-Cuban/Afro-beat band Yerba Buena in the late 1990s, and his career as a leader began in 2005 with the formation of the Pedrito Martinez Group in New York City.
Martinez has recorded four solo albums, the first of which was nominated for a Grammy in 2013 and chosen as one of NPR’s Favorite Albums of the Year and The Boston Globe Critics’ Top Ten. In 2019, he released a duo album with Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez. Later that year, he joined Eric Clapton to record a newly arranged version of Clapton’s song, My Father’s Eyes, to appear on his own album, Acertijos (Riddles). Acertijos, which primarily includes original compositions and features special guests including Gilberto Santa Rosa and Issac Delgado, was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Tropical Album of 2021. Martinez has been named Jazz Percussionist of the Year seven times by the Jazz Journalists Association, and Percussionist of the Year by the JazzTimes Critics Poll.
The musicians:
Pedrito Martinez - percussion/lead vocals
Manny Marquez - percussion/background vocals
Issac Delgado, Jr. - keyboard/background vocals
Sebastian Natal - electric bass/background vocals
Xito Lovell - trombone/background vocals