Milton Villarrubia, III

Click on the Buy Now button below to get the new grilly biggs album released on July 22, 2006 with the High Mayhem Record Label. Buy it!!!When did the love of beats and rhythms all begin for Milton Villarrubia III? When he began going to parades in New Orleans in late 70..s.Villarrubia started playing the snare at the age of 11. He got his first drum set when he was almost 14. His first group experience was with the band Boompa-Lito when he was 16. That same year, he entered the Expressions Drum and Bugle Corps a member of Drum Corps International. This experience culminated at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, where they performed for an audience of thousands. After High School Villarrubia moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where it took him two years to find the band At A Loss (AAL). This was when he met Carlos Santistevan. AAL recorded an album and then quickly disbanded. Santistevan and Villarrubia continued playing music together, and soon their passions turned to improvisational music. They formed the trio 29 Fingers, which was balanced by the multi-instrumentalist Tom Braejcha.After almost five years of living in Santa Fe, Villarrubia moved back home to receive a Bachelor..s degree in Jazz Performance on drum set from the University of New Orleans. During that time he met many people and formed many groups that ended up performing around town such as: Nice Gravy, The Random Ingredients, Roux Down, Action Potential, The Milton Villarrubia 4-tet, The Doug Bradford Trio, The Ed Barrett Trio + 1, C.I.P.E., Egg Yolk Jubilee, Straight Line, Johnny Angel and the Swing..n Demons, Ridiculous Monster, The Diesel Combustion Orchestra, The Tomorrow Music Orchestra, The III.IV.I Kollective, The Hall Monitors, WATIV, duOPhobia and grilly biggs (releasing a CD I Fall 2006). He would periodically go back to Santa Fe and perform with Thirty-nine Fingers and The Uninvited Guests (who released a CD on the High Mayhem record label later that year), as well as performing at the High Mayhem Festival in 2004 with grilly biggs. It was then that he began teaching both out of his private studio, as well as at the renowned New Orleans institution, Ray Francen..s Drum Center. Villarrubia was teaching over thirty students and playing with one of the afore mentioned groups a minimum of three nights a week, as well as going to school fulltime until Hurricane Katrina hit the city. His life was instantly uprooted, and he and his fiancé found themselves back in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with little belongings, as a result of his family home being destroyed by the 17th street canal levee breach.Since the storm he immediately formed the group A. Barn House with Carlos Santistevan. For the High Mayhem Festival in 2005, grilly biggs came to perform again as did the WATIV ensemble, both of which have released CD..s on the High Mayhem record label. That December, Mark Anderson came to Santa Fe, and High Mayhem put on a duOPhobia performance at their recording studio. Shortly after that he began playing around Santa Fe with the Sean Healin Band and performed in predominant local venues such as: The Cowgirl, The Mineshaft Tavern, Second Street Brewery, and El Paseo. At this point Villarrubia realized that his desire was to only play music that he found to be creative, and is now a member of: The Tymaeus Trio, Al Ghani, The Brilliant Dullards, and Rrake Ensemble. During the summer of 2006, he performed with WATIV in Los Angeles at Grand Performances. And now, in addition to his busy performing schedule, Villarrubia has started teaching again as an Artist in Residence with the world famous Santa Fe Opera.