Just as a Spanish kitchen heats up quickly, filling the air with aromas and flavors of hot peppers
and savory rice into a sizzling dish, Michel Camilo takes the stage with zest, putting a dash of salt
and pepper into his original piano compositions and arrangements. The Grammy award winning
Pianist & Composer infuses Latin-Jazz and Classical music together right at his fingertips. Forming
advanced and modern compositions and arrangements, Camilo takes the influences of big band
music and transforms the style into vibrant solo piano.
On his latest album What’s Up?, Camilo takes standards such as “Take Five” and “Love for Sale”
and performs them in an explosive and unheard velocity. Camilo incorporates new originals
“Paprika”, “On Fire” and “Island Beat” that intrigue the audience to internalize the music not just
through the ears, but that make you want to dance from your head to your toes!
Michel Camilo is not afraid to show versatility, from collaborating with Latin-Jazz artists such as
Paquito D’Rivera, Tomatito and Gary Burton to performing original piano concertos with some of
the world’s biggest symphonies including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony
Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of his home country Dominican Republic.
Vail Jazz is pleased to welcome to the stage this summer, Michel Camilo along with Cliff Almond
on Drum & Percussion and Latin-Jazz Bassist Lincoln Goines. The three were recently featured
together on the album Playing Lecuona and performances include the Blue Note Nyc/Tokyo,
Ronnie Scott’s Newport Jazz Festival, and Copenhagen Jazz House.
See live performance video in Madrid here:
Tickets for Michel Camilo’s Jazz Trio Performance on July 27th, and July 28th, 2016 are now
available at www.vailjazz.org/tickets/