Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Cristian Amigo was born January 2, 1963 in Santiago, Chile. He emigrated with his family to the United States as a young child. At 12 years old, he began studying guitar seriously and two years later the family moved to Miami and began performing with a rock band he formed, Six Feet Under. He attended Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior School and while a student there taught classes in guitar to his peers. During high school he took courses in music theory, classical guitar and jazz at Miami-Dade Community College.

Amigo entered the music program at Florida State University at age 17, studied classical guitar, then enrolled in the University of Miami and became an active recording session player. His first recording session at age 17 was with Narada Michael Walden prior to moving to Los Angeles to continue his education studying jazz with Kenny Burrell and composition with Wadada Leo Smith, earning a doctorate in Ethnomusicology.

Cristian would go on to become a film composer, bandleader, music producer, jingle producer, concert producer and music teacher at Plaza de la Raza and others. He has performed in African, Arabic, funk, hard rock, free jazz, jazz, and reggae groups working with Hans Zimmer, Wadada Leo Smith, David Ornette Cherry and Carlos Hayre.

His awards include Guggenheim and Van Leir Fellowships,  he has been produced by Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Foundation for the Arts, American Composers Forum, Danish Arts Council among numerous others. Amigo moved to New York City from Los Angeles in 2003 and quickly established himself on the Latin music, free improv, “new music”, and theater scenes, and continues to perform, record and produce.

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