Paquito D’Rivera

Paquito D’Rivera is a Cuban-American saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for Latin jazz, but his career also crosses into classical music, Afro-Cuban music, bebop, chamber music, and world music. The National Endowment for the Arts describes him as a saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, and composer, and notes that he was named a 2005 NEA Jazz Master.

He first became widely known as a co-founder of the influential Cuban group Irakere, whose mixture of jazz, rock, classical, and traditional Cuban music helped shape modern Latin jazz. His important recordings include Blowin’, Portraits of Cuba, Brazilian Dreams, Funk Tango, Live at the Royal Festival Hall with Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, Song for Maura, and the recent La Fleur de Cayenne.

D’Rivera is known for his virtuoso playing on both saxophone and clarinet, his elegant fusion of Cuban and Caribbean rhythms with jazz improvisation, and his parallel achievements as a classical composer. His career includes more than 30 solo albums, Grammy-winning recordings, major international performances, and collaborations with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Yo-Yo Ma, Arturo Sandoval, Bebo Valdés, and Chucho Valdés.