JOHN SANTOS with ERNESTO OVIEDO

Five-time Grammy-nominated percussionist and US Artists Fontanals Fellow, John Santos, is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the world today. Born in San Francisco, California, November l, l955, he was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean traditions of his family, surrounded by music. The fertile musical environment of the San Francisco Bay Area shaped his career in a unique way. His studies of Afro-Latin music have included several trips to New York, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia.He is known for his innovative use of traditional forms and instruments in combination with contemporary music, and has earned much respect and recognition as an educator, composer, and record and event producer. He's been a prolific performer, composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer, and record/event producer whose career has spanned over 35 years. John has worked with acknowledged, multi-generational masters such as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Chucho Valdes, Chocolate Armenteros, John Handy, Billy Cobham, Zakir Hussain, Pete Escovedo, Charlie Hunter, Carlos Santana and many more!

78-year young Cuban master vocalist, Ernesto Oviedo is one of the pre-eminent boleristas (singer of romantic ballads) in the world today. He is from a royal Cuban musical family of soneros - the son of pioneer tresero/composer Isaac Oviedo and older brother of Buena Vista Social Club tresero Papi Oviedo. The Cuban son runs in his veins, but it is the bolero, beloved throughout Latin America and deeply evolved in Cuba, that has become his trademark. His exquisite renditions of classic boleros from all over Latin America have put him in a unique class of traditional vocalists that few if any, can touch today.