Pedrito Martinez

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The Pedrito Martinez Group has emerged as the tightest Afro-Cuban band in New York. “Utterly joyful and completely addictive,” their shows ignite a devoted fan base that has spread to include Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Roger Waters, and Wynton Marsalis. The ensemble has its roots planted firmly in the rumba tradition, and revels in the bata rhythms and vocal chants of Yoruban and Santerian music. Members of the Pedrito Martinez Group include Jhair Sala, from Lima, Peru; electric bassist, Alvaro Benavides, from Caracas, Venezuela; and keyboard player/vocalist, Araicne Trujillo, from Havana, Cuba.

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1973, Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez began his musical career at the age of 11, performing as vocalist and percussionist with such Cuban legends as Tata Guines and Munequitos de Matanzas. He was brought to Canada in 1998 to tour with Jane Bunnett’s Spirits of Havana. Since settling in New York City, Pedrito has collaborated with Sting, Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Meshell Ndegeocello, Eddie Palmieri, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He is featured on more than one hundred albums, including Eddie Palmieri and Brian Lynch’s Grammy Award winning Simpatico. Martínez was a founding member of the Afro-Beat ensemble, Yerba Buena. The group recorded two successful albums and toured internationally with the Dave Matthews Band, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.

With two successful live albums behind him and a highly anticipated studio album ahead, the future is on fire for Pedrito Martinez – deemed “an incomparable performer” by The New York Times.

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REVIEWS

Since arriving in the United States at the end of the 1990s, the Cuban percussionist [Pedrito] Martinez has been all over the place, putting rumba and guaguancó into the weave of all kinds of groups…. when his drums, singing and writing are the focus – as is the case in his new band, which plays complex, blenderized Africa-to-the-New-World funk – he’s an incomparable performer.
The New York Times

Pedrito and the band are virtuosi of the first order. But even more striking is how they work together as a unit. They are one of the greatest groups playing today. I’ve learned so much from hearing and from playing with them.
John Scofield

Watching Pedrito Martinez is one of the most inspiring musical experiences you can imagine.
Stanton Moore, Galactic