Home » Jazz Musicians » Pete Rodriguez
Pete Rodriguez
Trumpeter, vocalist, and percussionist Pete Rodríguez carries the bloodline of Nuyorican salsa as he takes his unique brand of jazz to exciting new places. Son of salsa singer Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez and godson of Fania Records bandleader Johnny Pacheco, Rodríguez cut his teeth playing with some of the greatest names in Latin music. By age 19, he was musical director of his father’s band. As a vocalist, he sang on Tito Puente's Grammy-award winning Mambo Birdland. As an instrumentalist, he's appeared with legends including Celia Cruz, Chico O'Farrill, Bebo Valdez and Eddie Palmieri, including performing on the Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project’s Grammy-winning release, Simpatico. As a bandleader, Rodriguez draws on his diverse upbringing—including living through the birth of Hip Hop in the Bronx and becoming an accomplished classical trumpeter as an adolescent Puerto Rico—to create his own brand of jazz that defies categorization. The result is music that has been praised as “not only instrumentally ferocious, but texturally rich and at times profoundly intimate,” with compositions “rich in musical depth, tone and beauty, as well as rhythm and melody… giving his music an appeal beyond genres.” (Downbeat). His music demonstrates his aptitude for hard-driving, modern post-bop jazz, as much as melodic Latin variants and R&B-tinged grooves. Rodriguez has released a series of acclaimed albums as a leader, including Mind Trip, The Alchemist, Caminando con Papi (Destiny Records), El Conde Negro (Destiny Records), Obstacles (Sunnyside Records), and his most recent, I’m Pete Rodríguez, Vol. 1 (Sunnyside Records), named one of the Best of 2024 by the New York City Jazz Record. His forthcoming I’m Pete Rodríguez, Vol. 2 continues his exploration of identity, resilience, and innovation.
Rodriguez obtained his doctorate of musical arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007.
Tags
Angel Roman & Mambo Blue: Festive Interplay
by Pierre Giroux
Latin Jazz as presented by guitarist Angel Roman, is a combination of Afro Latin rhythms from a variety of sources, but when blended with Brazilian, pop, and fusion the music results in a new stew which, while recognizable, has different flavours, fragrances and textures. Delivering this mélange is the band Mambo Blue, whose membership ebbs and flows depending on Roman's residency. This iteration is composed mainly of musicians from Austin, Texas, and they have delivered on their talents with a ...
Continue ReadingPete Rodriguez: El Conde Negro
by Angelo Leonardi
Le splendide doti di Pete Rodriguez evidenziate due anni fa nel debutto Caminando con Papi le ritroviamo in questo nuovo lavoro, registrato ancora in quintetto, dove ritroviamo il pianista Luis Perdomo e il percussionista Robert Quintero ma si aggiungono Rudy Royston alla batteria e Ricky Rodriguez al contrabbasso, rendendo jazzisticamente avvincente la dimensione ritmica. Il risultato è smagliante non solo per l'evidente virtuosismo del trombettista e l'elevata partnership, ma per la ricercata creatività con cui rilegge la tradizione musicale portoricana. ...
Continue ReadingPete Rodriguez: El Conde Negro
by Dan Bilawsky
Pete Rodriguez isn't a purist. He knows his salsa, as one would expect of the offspring of famed salsa vocal icon Pete “El Conde" Rodriguez, and he knows his jazz. But this trumpeter-vocalist sees no need to draw strong separation between the two. In creating El Conde Negro, Rodriguez mines Nuyorican musical veins and jazz lodes, ultimately mixing his finds together to create a form of music that's loyal to both camps yet highly original and completely mutable.
Continue ReadingPete Rodriguez: Caminando con papi
by Angelo Leonardi
Una questione antica e irrisolta della psicologia riguarda il peso che l'ambiente o la dimensione biologia hanno nel determinare ciò che siamo. Nella storia della disciplina si è dato preminenza all'uno o all'altro fattore, con posizioni talvolta radicali con innatisti e comportamentisti in aperto conflitto. Se poi andiamo nel campo artistico il discorso si complica ancor più: i figli dei grandi innovatori sono spesso figure mediocri magari schiacciate dal peso del confronto col padre (Freud insegna) ma talvolta arrivano a ...
Continue ReadingPete Rodriguez: El Alquimista (The Alchemist)
by Woodrow Wilkins
"Jive State Suite" sure is an attention getter. The introduction to the first track of Pete Rodriguez's El Alquimista (The Alchemist) makes clear this is an album with a difference. Rodriguez, a trumpeter, vocalist and composer, has performed with a virtual who's who of Latin music, as well as other styles. Among his many associates are Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and Chico O'Farrill. “Jive State Suite" is a set of five songs ...
Continue ReadingPete Rodriguez: El Alquimista - The Alchemist
by Edward Blanco
Puerto Rican trumpet wonder Pete Rodriguez blends his style of Latin music with a modern jazz sound, forging an impressive musical statement on El Alquimista - The Alchemist, his third album as leader. Serving as a sideman on many other recordings, performing with some of the best Latin jazz artists in the business including Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Chico O'Farrill and Carlos “Patato" Valdez, the trumpeter's developed chops draw comparisons to those of Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard.
While Rodriguez ...
Continue ReadingNew Pete Rodriguez CD: Mind Trip
Source:
All About Jazz
Mind Trip is the debut CD of trumpeter, percussionist and composer Pete Rodriguez, who has played with such music legends as Eddie Palmieri, Bebo Valdez, Celia Cruz, and Tito Puente, including performing on Tito Puente's Grammy-winning album Mambo Birdland and the soon to be released Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project.
Kenny Barron says of Pete's playing and compositions on Mind Trip: “He possesses a full rich sound on both trumpet and flugelhorn and his technique is incredible. His articulation is precise. ...
read more
“As a bandleader he’s working on a clean, complex and flexible model of modern Latin jazz … his compositions change shape and character, according to the free flow of the arrangements, among art song and swing and clave. Draped over all of it is Mr. Rodriguez’s powerful playing, soft-toned but battling.” – The New York Times
“Rodriguez creates compositions rich in musical depth, tone and beauty, as well as rhythm and melody … giving his music an appeal beyond genres.” - Downbeat Magazine
Photos
Music
Videos
Similar
Dizzy Gillespie
trumpet
Vince Guaraldi
piano
Cal Tjader
vibraphone
Ramsey Lewis
piano
Tito Puente
drums
Toots Thielemans
harmonica
Benito Gonzalez
piano
Ray Barretto
congas
Eddie Palmieri
piano
Willie Bobo
percussion
Papo Vazquez
trombone
Joe Cuba
composer / conductor
Jacam Manricks
arranger
