Danilo Pérez

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Danilo Pérez (Panama, 2012)

Danilo Pérez (born December 29, 1966 in Panama ) is a Panamanian jazz pianist.

Live and act

Pérez began playing the piano at the age of three and studied classical piano at the National Conservatory of Panama when he was ten. He played drums and synthesizers in his father's salsa band. He went to the United States to study electronics at Indiana University , and in 1985 he switched to music at Berklee College of Music .

He then worked for two years with Jon Hendricks , then with Paquito D'Rivera as well as Terence Blanchard and Claudio Roditi . It first appeared on the album Reunion by D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval . From 1989 to 1992 he was a member of the Dizzy Gillespies United Nations Orchestra . Among other things, the album Live at the Royal Festival Hall became known .

Since 1993 he has been active as a band leader. His first own albums appeared: Danilo Pérez and The Journey . With Sandoval he recorded the 1994 Grammy Award winning album Danzon . Since 1995 he has also been a member of Wynton Marsalis ' band. In the same year he recorded an orchestral version of The Journey with the Panama Symphony Orchestra .

In 1996 the album Panamonk was released as a result of his examination of the music of Thelonious Monks , followed in 1998 by the album Central Avenue , which was nominated for a Grammy .

In 1997 he received a composition commission for the Concorso Internazionale di Composizione in Bologna ; his Blues For The Saints was performed by vibraphonist Gary Burton and the Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna under Jerzy Maksymiuk . At the annual New York Jazz Awards in 1998 he received the award for Best Artist or Band in Performance . In 1999 he received a composition commission for the Chicago Jazz Festival ; the piece Suite of the Americas was published in 2000 on his album for the label Verve Motherland .

In 2000, Pérez was invited to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for a solo concert . In the same year he became the cultural ambassador of Panama, he is also the founder and director of the annual Panama Jazz Festival and also an ambassador of goodwill for UNICEF .

Pérez is currently a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet and works with Ben Street and Adam Cruz . He is the director of Berklee Global Jazz.

Discographic notes

Web links

Commons : Danilo Pérez  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Pérez, Danilo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Panamanian jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Panama