w/ Orestes Vilató, John Calloway, Bob Crawford, Anthony Blea, Saul Sierra,
David Flores, José Roberto Hernandez, Manuel Constancio, Fernanda
Bustamante
*PLEASE NOTE: All tickets are subject to an additional $4 per ticket facility fee.
Seven-time Grammy-nominated percussionist, US Artists Fontanals Fellow,
and 2013-2014 SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, John Santos, is one of
the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the world today.
Born in San Francisco, California, November 1, 1955, 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.
John was the director of the Orquesta Tipica Cienfuegos (1976-1980) and
the award-winning Orquesta Batachanga (1981-1985). He was founder and
director of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated Machete
Ensemble (1985-2006), with whom he released nine CDs with special guests
from Puerto Rico, Cuba, NY, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, mostly on
John’s Machete Records label that was founded in 1984 and continues
today. He currently directs the highly acclaimed John Santos Sextet
Latin jazz ensemble with five full-length CDs under their belt to date.
Papa Mambo was released in 2007. Their second CD, Perspectiva
Fragmentada, (2008) was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association
(NY), and by Cubadisco (Cuban Grammys) as one of the top Latin Jazz
releases of the year, and selected as one of the five top Latin Jazz CDs
of 2008 by New York’s All About Jazz magazine, among many honors.
Filosofía Caribeña Vol.1 (2011) received a four-and-a-half star review
from Downbeat Magazine! Filosofía Caribeña Vol.2 was released in 2013.
Siempre Clásico (2014) features amazing special guests Ernesto Oviedo
and Orestes Vilató. John has also produced four full length CDs with his
Afro-Caribbean Folklóric Ensemble, El Coro Folklórico Kindembo since
1994, two of which were Grammy-nominated. The most recent, La Esperanza
(2011), garnered a four star review in Downbeat Magazine!