In the San Francisco Bay Area, John has built a solid foundation as a musician, arranger-composer and educator. His credits as a performer/arranger include work with Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Omar Sosa, Pete Escovedo, Max Roach, Chocolate Armenteros, Carlos "Patato" Valdez, Jesus Diaz, Quique Cruz, Wayne Wallace, Rebeca Mauleon and John Santos. He is also a founding member of the Grammy nominated Machete Ensemble led by John Santos, having written and arranged much of their material.
John has performed throughout the United States and around the world, including Europe (with Cachao), Cuba and the Caribbean (with John Santos), Asia and the Philippines (with Kulingtang Arts), Colombia, and Venezuela. He has most recently spent considerable time in Chile for two different projects: with the jazz group Quirejema on a multimedia presentation entitled "Archaelogy of Memory", about the effects of art on those tortured during the 1970s; and with Teatro ArcoIris of San Francisco State University, performing "Poeta Pan", a multimedia theatre piece on the life and poetry of Pablo Neruda.
His recording credits as a performer and composer include his debut CD "Diaspora", and collaborations with Jesus Diaz, Pete Escovedo, Rebeca Mauleon, John Santos and Omar Sosa. Included in his recording and writing credits are the Grammy nominations given to "SF Bay" (2003) with the Machete Ensemble, and Ritmo y Candela (1996) and Ritmo y Candela II (1998), produced by Greg Landau and featuring Cuban percussionists Changuito, Patato, and Orestes Vilato.
As an educator, John currently teaches Afro-Cuban music and Latin American music courses at San Francisco State University and at the JazzSchool in Berkeley, CA., and is also a clinician at the Stanford Jazz Workshop and at JazzCamp West. He frequently travels to Cuba as program coordinator for PlazaCuba, an arts company that offers courses in conjunction with the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba.
John holds an M.A. degree in Music Education from San Francisco State University, and is currently working on his doctorate in international and multi-cultural education at the University of San Francisco. His passion outside of music is to advocate for quality arts education for all children in the public schools, and is a firm believer in social justice for the marginalized students he has been teaching for many years.
