IN MEMORIAM Emiliano

/// EMILIANO SALVADOR (1951-1992) PIANIST / COMPOSER / ARRANGER / PRODUCER///Born in Puerto Padre, Cuba in 1951 - Died in Havana, Cuba in 1992 victim of a heart attack, after a couple of years suffering from alcoholism. Emiliano Salvador is one of those artist admired by all musicians and specially those playing the piano. Salvador has turned into a legend as the years go by, not only among Cubans but also within the Afro-Caribbean and Latin Jazz scopes of today. He was not only a brilliant soloist and improviser but also a mature composer, an innate melodic player; a genius. Nowadays he has received posthumous homages from lots of great musicians of Jazz and Latin Jazz. After graduating from the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Habana, Cuba he was the former pianist along with Frank Fernandez of El Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora del ICAIC founded by Leo Brower. After playing, arraging, and touring with different cuban artists and ensembles he decided to start his carrer as a producer and soloist. In the year of 1978, Emiliano recorded in Havana his first LP “Nueva Visión” featuring artits like Arturo Sandoval, Paquito d' Rivera, Ignacio Berroa, Pablo Milanes among others; It’s precisely this marvelous work what makes him known worldwide. From this same album it is given off his all-time famous single "A Puerto Padre Me Voy". His second LP “Emiliano Salvador” was recorded in 1980. In the 80’s decade, Salvador created his own group and recorded another LPs like: “Emiliano Salvador y su Grupo” in 1986, “Una mañana de domingo” and “Ayer y Hoy” in 1992 (last one only 4 months before his death). He toured and offered concerts in all Europe, Latin America and Canada, attending also to Top Jazz Festivals in Havana (Jazz Plaza), Montreal, Ottawa, London, Mexico, Caracas, Bogota, Moscow, Brussels, Rome, Milan just to number a few. He met and played with such groups and musicians like: Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Brandford Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby McFerrin, Jack De Johnette, Manhattan Transfer, Woody Shaw, Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow, Jimmy Smith, Booy Watson, Joe Henderson, Chico Freeman, Airto Moreira and Nana Vasconcelos, Billy Cobham, René McLean, Ismael Miranda, Dave Valentín and so many others... His sound is unique!!! He is Emiliano Salvador!!!