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Manny Oquendo was born on January 1, 1931 in New York City of Puerto Rican ancestry. Growing up he began studying percussion in 1945 and went on to work in the tropical bands and Latin music ensembles like Carlos Valero, Luis del Campo, Juan “El Boy” Torres, Chano Pozo, Jose Budet, Juanito Sanabria, Marcelino Guerra, Jose Curbelo and Pupi Campo.
In 1950, he became the bongo player for Tito Puente followed by Tito Rodriguez four years later. He moved on to Vicentico Valdes the next year and freelanced in the City before joining Eddie Palmieri’s Conjunto La Perfecta in 1962, where he helped develop the New York style of the mozambique rhythm.
Manny co-led Conjunto Libre with bassist Andy González from 1974 and had a worldwide hit with the Freddie Hubbard composition Little Sunflower in 1983 on the album Ritmo, Sonido y Estilo. He also was a sideman with Paul Quinichette.
His timbales solos were famous for their tastefully sparse, straight forward “típico” phrasing and his solos also incorporated the rhythmic language of the folkloric quinto, the lead drum ofrumba. Percussionist Manny Oquendo, who also played bongos, timbales, and left a small catalogue of nine albums as a leader, passed away on March 25, 2009.
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Ed Byrne was born on December 30, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he worked for more than fifteen years on the New York City jazz scene as a soloist with Chet Baker, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Billy Eckstine, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Archie Shepp, Mel Torme and the list continues. He also performed, composed, and arranged numerous recordings and toured the Americas, France, Germany and Sweden.
Ed was nominated Best Trombone Soloist by Latin New York magazine, as a leader was nominated for a Grammy Award for his Fenway Funk album, and won a Grammy for Eddie Palmieri’s Latin jazz album, Unfinished Masterpiece.
As an educator he hold a doctorate of Musical Arts in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory, has been on the faculties of Berklee College, Baruch College, University of the Arts, Greenfield Community College and the University of Rhode Island. Ed has published 42 texts on jazz improvisation and his Linear Jazz Improvisation Method, sold world-wide.
Trombonist, author, bandleader, composer, arranger and educator Ed Byrne is currently the leader of his Latin Jazz Evolution that released their first CD titled Conquistador, on Blue Truffle Records and continues to perform, record and tour.
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Mike Barone was born on December 27, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan. He started playing the trombone at age 12 and was taught by his trumpeter father Joe Barone, who played with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and other big bands. He graduated from Brush High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1954 and studied trombone, guitar and arranging until 1956 until his acceptance into the West Point Army band studying with Louis Van Haney of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. After graduation he was stationed in Germany with the Special Services and formed his first jazz big band touring service clubs.
By 1959 Mike was back in California attending Valley College but left to tour with Sy Zentner and Louis Bellson Orchestra. He worked many years arranging, performing and recording with Louis and Pearl Bailey, recording with Lalo Schifrin’s New Continent and Dizzy Gillespie’s Quintet. He has performed with Dick Grove, Pete Jolly, Gabor Szabo, Oliver Nelson, Terry Gibbs, Gerald Wilson and many more. Twenty-seven of his arrangements have been recorded by Wilson and others, and the now classic Johnny Hartman album Unforgettable has 7 tunes were his arrangements.
He put together a quintet with Frank Rosolino, formed the Mike Barone Big Band, recorded with Bob Edmondson, John Williams and Shelly Manne, took session work for film including Harper, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, Sweet Charity, Up the Down Staircase and The Thomas Crown Affair. On television he performed the theme Mission Impossible, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, The Grammys, The Midnight Special, Redd Foxx Show and the Johnny Carson Tonight Show among others.
Since 1997 Mike returned to Los Angeles, California after stints in Colorado and Vancouver, he formed a new band and performed at area clubs. Arranger, composer, trombonist Mike Barone, known for one of the best known West Coast big bands in the Sixties, continues to arrange, perform and tour.
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Irvin Mayfield, Jr. was born on born December 23, 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of five brothers, three half-brothers and a half-sister. He received his first trumpet when he was in the fourth grade, asking his father for one after seeing the success a friend of his was having with girls by playing the instrument. Early in his public school education, he befriended fellow schoolmate Jason Marsalis. As a young man he attended and graduated from New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, declined a scholarship to Juilliard School of Music to attend the University of New Orleans, then dropped out during his first semester.
Mayfield began his musical career during the latter half of the 1980s, playing with the Algiers Brass Band, shared a New York City apartment with Wynton Marsalis for a brief period and helped found Los Hombres Calientes with Bill Summers, Jason Marsalis, Victor Atkins III, David Pulphus, and Yvette-Bostic Summers. Signing with Basin Street Records, the groups debut album garnerd much success and Irvin received national recognition.
As an educator Mayfield would go on to be an artist-in-residence and establish the Institute of Jazz Culture at Dillard University, found the sixteen-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, accept a one-year appointment as Artistic Director of Jazz at Orchestra Hall, the five-concert jazz series of the Minnesota Orchestra, received The Chancellor’s Award from the University of New Orleans, and awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Dillard University,
Over the course of his still vibrant career, Mayfield has been a part of the Higher GroundHurricane Relief Benefit Concert in the aftermath of Katrina, and was nominated to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush and was subsequently appointed to the post by President Obama in 2010, serving through 2014. He has performed at the White House and festivals around the country, was made a Cultural Ambassador of the City of New Orleans, has a club named after him in the Royal Sonesta Hotel and has recorded to date, twenty-five albums.
Grammy and Billboard Award-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield currently serves as Jazz Artist in Residence for the Apollo Theater, is Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and continues to perform, record and tour with his small groups and occasionally with Los Hombres Calientes.
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Robby Ameen was born on December 7, 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut of Lebanese origins and studied drums with Ed Blackwell and classical percussion with Fred Hinger. He would go on to graduate from Yale with a degree in Literature.
In 1985 he became a member of Ruben Blades’ Seis del Solar band, winning a Latin Grammy for best Salsa record Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 1 and 2. He would have long-term residencies with Dave Valentin, Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side of…All Stars, Kip Hanrahan, and Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express. As a sideman he has recorded on other Grammy winning records including Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar’s Escenas and Brian Lynch’s Simpatico.
Robby has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Palmieri, Paul Simon, Mongo Santamaria, Carly Simon, Hilton Ruiz, Kirsty MacColl and Steve Swallow among others. As a session musician Ameen has recorded numerous jingles, film scores, and TV music, including the popular HBO series Sex and the City. In 2012, Ameen was the subject on an episode of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Public Television series Arab American Stories.
As an educator, he co-authored with bassist Lincoln Goines the best-selling instructional book Funkifying the Clave: Afro-Cuban drums for Bass and Drums. He is an international clinician, percussion/drum festival participant and is currently on the faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Drummer and bandleader Robby Ameen is best known for the unique and powerful Afro-Cuban style he has created and is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent drummers in the area of Latin Jazz.
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