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Papo Vazquez
Papo Vazquez Bio 2025
About Me
Papo Vázquez
Trombonist, composer, arranger
has 50 years of career spanning
Jazz, Latin and
Afro Caribbean
music. Grammy Nominee, NEA
Master Artist, NY Regional Emmy
Nominee
• Musical Director for the
National Puerto Rican Day Parade
Orchestra,
(NYC/WABC) 2016, 2017,
2018, 2019, 2022,2024, 2025
• Commissioned by Wynton
Marsalis to compose music for
Jazz and Art series,
conducted and
performed with J@LC orchestra,
CD release August 2019
• New York Pops Education,
Board of Education certified, 2018
and 2019
• Commissioned new music for
Afro Latin Jazz Alliance for “Nueva
Musica”
concert series
• Grammy nominated for Papo
Vázquez’ Mighty Pirates,
Marooned/Aíslado, 2008
NY Regional Emmy Nominee
2025
Born in 1958 in Philadelphia, PA,
although his young formative
years were in
Puerto Rico. By age
17, Vazquez headed to New York
City, recorded and performed with
top artists in
the salsa music
scene like The Fania All-Stars,
Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Eddie
Palmieri, Larry
Harlow, and Hector
La Voe. Vázquez became a key
player in NYC’s burgeoning Latin
jazz scene of the
late 1970's.
Went on to perform and/or record
with jazz luminaries Tito Puente,
Dizzy Gillespie’s
United Nations
Orchestra, Chico O’Farrill, Ray
Charles, Slide Hampton’s World
of Trombones, Jerry
Gonzalez Fort
Apache among many others. By
the age of 22, Vázquez had
traveled the globe.
Vázquez was deeply moved by
jazz at a young age. His
appreciation and
knowledge of the
indigenous music of the
Caribbean provides him with a
unique ability to fuse Afro-
Caribbean
rhythms with freer melodic and
harmonic elements of progressive
jazz.
Beginnings
After spending his early years in
Puerto Rico, he grew up in the
heart of North
Philadelphia's
Puerto Rican community. He
bought his first trombone from a
friend for $5 and
joined the
elementary school band.
At the age of 14, an uncle
recommended him to a local salsa
band, where he met
trumpet player
Jimmy Purvis. Purvis inspired
Papo’s lifelong passion for jazz by
giving him two
records: J.J.
Johnson's Blue Trombone and
John Coltrane Live at the Village
Vanguard. By 15,
Vázquez was
performing with local Latin bands
in Philadelphia and accompanying
NY visiting
artists such as
Eddie Palmieri.
He was a founding member of
Jerry Gonzalez' Fort Apache and
Conjunto Libre, as
well as Puerto
Rico’s popular Latin fusion band
Batacumbele. With Batacumbele
he performed,
composed,
arranged and recorded on several
albums from 1981 to 1985. Upon
his return to
New York, he
joined Tito Puente's Latin Jazz
Ensemble, traveling with them as
principal
trombonist, and toured
Europe with Dizzy Gillespie's
United Nations Orchestra.
Leader, Composer, Innovator
Vázquez has always been deeply
moved by jazz, and specifically
cites the music of
John Coltrane
and J.J. Johnson as having most
influenced him. In addition, his
appreciation for and
knowledge of
the indigenous music of the
Caribbean peoples provides him
with a unique ability to
fuse Afro-
Caribbean rhythms, specifically
those from Puerto Rico, with freer
melodic and
harmonic elements
of progressive jazz.
During his time back in Puerto
Rico with Batacumbele in the
1980s, he began to
experiment with
“bomba jazz,” a fusion of jazz and
traditional Puerto Rican bomba. In
1993 he
recorded his first
album as a leader, Breakout. He
continued collaborating with a
variety of Latin Jazz
artists,
contributing Overtime Mambo to
Hilton Ruiz’s Manhattan Mambo
and Contra Viento
y Mareo in
Descarga Boricua, Vol. 1. In 1999,
he released a live recording
featuring a number of
important
New York Latin and Jazz artists,
including bassist Andy Gonzalez,
saxophonist
Michael Brecker,
among others. The release of
Pirates & Troubadours - At the
Point, Vol. 1 was
followed the next
year with At The Point, Vol. 2.
This project evolved into the
Pirates Troubadours, an
“Afro- Puerto
Rican jazz band” including
musicians such as Roberto
Cepeda from the folklore
Familia Cepeda of
Puerto Rico, Milton Cardona and
Anthony Carrillo on percussion
and John Benitez,
among others.
The group performed at festivals
around the world and released
Carnival in San
Juan in 2003,
followed by From The Badlands
in 2007.
Interest in Vázquez as a composer
grew. He was the first artist to
receive a
composer’s commission
(Iron Jungle) for the Afro-Latin
Jazz Orchestra, then a resident
orchestra at Jazz at
Lincoln Center.
His first classical composition,
Palomita – Afro-Caribbean Suite,
which to this date,
the first time
Bomba and Plena were
performed with a Chamber
Orchestra, was commissioned
by the Bronx Arts
Ensemble and premiered at the
Hostos Center for the Arts and
Culture in the Bronx
in 2004. In
2007, in a commission from the
Bronx River Arts Center, he wrote
Sube el Rio
(River Rising) for his
Mighty Pirate Orchestra for their
20th Anniversary “Bronx River
Sounds” concert.
The same year, through a grant
from The Painted Bride Art Center
in Philadelphia,
Vázquez was
asked to expand Pirates
Troubadours, and was
commissioned to compose new
music for a 19-piece,
Afro-Puerto Rican Jazz Orchestra.
The 2008 event was recorded
live, resulting in
Papo Vázquez
Mighty Pirates Marooned/Aíslado,
which received a Grammy
nomination for Best
Latin Jazz Album.
The Mighty Pirates Orchestra
continues to allow Vázquez the
opportunity to blend
multi-faceted
compositions and trombone style
with rhythms of Afro Caribbean
origins and jazz.
Sometimes
joined by folk dancers that
enhance the music, the orchestra
has garnered rave
reviews. Musical
themes such as Yuba' Jazz,
Holande Pirata, Jibaro Waltz,
Plena Funk and Mapeye
Jazz are terms
used to help describe his music.
In 2009, Vázquez premiered a
composition “Oasis” with the
Bronx Arts Ensemble at
its Memorial
Day Concert. It was his seventh
year writing for concerts, held
annually in Van
Cortland Park in the
Bronx. This work grew into the
expanded Oasis Project, which
had its 2010
premiere at the
Pregones Theater in the Bronx
with the Pirates Troubadours
performing with the
Bronx Arts
Ensemble and Multicultural Music
Group. Vázquez has also shared
his compositions
with Ruben
Blades (Tengan Fe/Antecedente),
Hilton Ruiz (Manhattan Mambo)
and Dave
Valentin (Tropic Heat),
among others.
His song “Baila Plena” from At
The Point, Vol I. is featured on the
soundtrack for
Free Enterprise.
Other movie credits include
playing on the soundtracks for
The Mambo Kings and
Spike Lee’s Mo’
Better Blues.
Selected Honors and Awards
Phialdelphia Clef Club Jazz Award
- Best Trombone 2015
National Endowment for the Arts
Latino Master 2011
Grammy Nominated 2008 – Papo
Vazquez Marooned/Aislado on his
Picaro Records
Grammy: Best Jazz Instrumental
Album, Wayne Shorter’s Alegria
(Verve Records)
Grammy: Best Latin Jazz - Bebo
Valdez – Bebo de Cuba
Grammy: Best Tropical Latin –
Ruben Blades – Antecedente
Recognized by Los Pleneros de La
21 for his contributions to Puerto
Rican Culture.
New York Times’ list of “Top 10
Undeservedly Obscure
Recordings”
Taller de Jazz Don Pedro in Puerto
Rico Award
DownBeat Magazine’s list of
“Talent Deserving Wider
Recognition” 1980.
Best Trombone “Latin New York
Magazine” 1980, 1979
Discography
Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates
Troubadours – Chapter 10:
Breaking Cover, Picaro
Records 2020
Papo Vazquez Quartet – GV J.S.
Bach, Picaro Records 2017
Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates
Troubadours – Spirit Warrior,
Picaro Records, 2015
Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates
Troubadours – Oasis, Picaro
Records, 2012
Papo Vázquez The Mighty Pirates
- Marooned/Aislado, Picaro
Records, Grammy
Nomination 2008
Papo Vázquez Pirates
Troubadours - From The
Badlands, Picaro Records, 2007
El Niño Josele - 2011
Tego Calderon - The Underdog/El
Subestimado, Jiggiri Records,
2006
Shakira & Wyclef Jean - World
Soccer Final Theme (“Bamboo”),
2006
Ray Barretto - Standards Rican-
ditioned, Zoho Music,2006
Los Pleneros de la 21 Para Todos
Ustedes, Smithsonian Folkways,
2005 - Grammy
Nomination,
Bebo Valdez - Bebo de Cuba,
Calle 54, 2005 - Grammy, Best
Latin Jazz Album
Papo Vázquez Pirates
Troubadours - Carnival in San
Juan, Cu-Bop Records, 2003
Wayne Shorter - Alegria, Verve,
2003 – Grammy, Best Jazz
Instrumental Album
Jack Bruce - Shadows In The Air,
Sanctuary Records Group, 2001
Freddie Cole Rio de Janeiro Blues,
Telarc
Chico O'Farrill “Carambola”
Fantasy
Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues
movie soundtrack
Papo Vázquez “Pirates &
Troubadours - At the Point Vol. I”
Cubop
Papo Vázquez “Pirates &
Troubadours - At the Point Vol. 2”
Cubop
Milton Cardona “Cambucha”
American Clave
Arturo O'Farrill “Bloodlines”
Fantasy
Chucho Valdes “All Stars Bronx
Lebanon New Directions Project”
RMM
“Jammin' in the Bronx” Papo
Vázquez Band, Chucho Valdes &
The Machito Orq
RMM
Chart Busters with Dr. Lonnie
Smith, Lenny White, Hiram
Bullock, Craig Handy,
Papo Vázquez, et.al.
Chico O'Farrill “Pure Emotion”
Fantasy
Steve Berrios “First World”
Fantasy
Descarga Boricua “Descarga
Boricua” Tierrazo
Dave Valentin “Tropic Heat” GRP
Juan Luis Guerra 440 “Fogarate”
440
Papo Vázquez “Breakout”
Timeless
Ruben Blades “Amor y Control”
”Antecedente” & “Caminando”
Sony
Hilton Ruiz “Mannhatan Mambo”
Telarc & “Hands on Percusion”
RMM Tito Puente “Out of this
World” Tito Puente “100th” RMM
Jerry Gonzalez Fort Apache Band
”Obatala” “Live in Berlin” Enja &
”Ya Yo Me Cure”
American Clave
New York Latin Jazz All Stars
”Feliz Navidad”
Bobby Valentin “Presenta al Cano
Estremera” – Bronco Records
Batacumbele “Con Un Poco de
Songo” & “En Aquellos Tiempos”
Tierrazo
Ray Barretto “Ricanstruction”
Fania
Slide Hampton “World of
Trombones” WEST54
Chico O'Farrill “Calle 54”
Fania All Stars “Habana Jam”
Fania
Willie Colon & Ruben Blades
”Siembra” Fania
Willie Colon & Celia Cruz Fania
Hector La Voe “De Ti Depende” –
Feliz Navidad, Fania
Mon Rivera “Vuelvo a Vivir” Fania
