Description
Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba, Sept 12, 1973 in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Old Havana, and began his musical career at the age of 11. Since settling in New York City in the fall of 1998, Pedrito has recorded or performed with Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Paquito D’Rivera, Chucho Valdez, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Matthews, Jackson Browne, Elton John, James Taylor and Sting, and has contributed to well over 100 albums. A consummate master of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the batá drum he is also the world’s first-call rumbero—playing, singing, and dancing with dozens of Cuban rumba groups and contributing to, or appearing in, several important films, including Calle 54 (2000) and Chico and Rita (2010).
CROSSCURRENTS DÚO PROJECT
Pedrito Martinez percussion and voice and Ahmed Alom piano and voice
Pedrito Martinez and Ahmed Alom explore the intersection between the world of
the European Classical Masters, and the rooted and rhythm-rich sounds, of the Afro Cuban culture.
Pedrito Martinez, the leading percussionist in Afro Cuban music and Jazz, and Ahmed Alom, a bright light among pianists of his generation, both originally from Havana, Cuba, have created an amalgam of the European Classical universe that Ahmed is steeped in and the Afro-Cuban rhythmic palette and Yoruba incantations that, as a Yoruba priest, Pedrito is a master of.
Pedrito honed his skills at the feet of his mentors in the musically historic, Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, attaining the designation, Rumbero and eventually, becoming a priest in the West African, Yoruba religion, and a worldwide reputation for his brilliance as a percussionist and compelling vocalist.
Ahmed, a product of the famously rigorous conservatory system in his native Havana and of the Manhattan School of Music in New York, has built his reputation performing and conducting in the classical world, while also having absorbed the clave-driven pulse of the Afro Cuban sounds of his youth.
Both of these master musicians have worked to find the axis between two seemingly distant worlds that not only connects but where each one helps illuminate the other in unexpected and exciting ways.
TRIBUTE TO CAMARON DE LA ISLA PROJECT
Camaron de la Isla is widely considered the single most influential Flamenco Cantaor (singer) in the modern period. Active in the late-60’s and 70’s, he helped create Nuevo Flamenco and his memory has been kept in the fore with awards, documentary films, and with a museum dedicated to him in San Fernando, Spain.
Pedrito Martinez, in a considerable gesture to honor him, created a superb album in 2013 titled, Rumba de la Isla, (produced by Fernando Trueba and Nat Chediak), comprising songs associated with the great Flamenco Cantaor, and transforming them with his own Afro Cuban rumba treatment and his otherworldly, vocals.
Inspired by requests from fans who consider the album to be one of the finest recordings Pedrito has ever been part of, Pedrito decided to create a new project for 2024 and 2025, encompassing the music from the album, in conjunction with his own, spectacular group, giving the music their own particular spin.
