Horacio Hernández

Horacio Hernández is a drummer and percussionist born in Havana, Cuba. He is considered one of the best drummers in the world. Horacio was awarded the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2001, Live at the Blue Note, together with Michel Camilo (piano) and Charles Flores (bass).

"El Negro" is part of the new generation of jazz musicians who have followed in the footsteps of his compatriots Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, Ignacio Berroa and others.

With a prominent career outside his native country, his versatility and virtuosity have earned him one of the most powerful reputations in the contemporary jazz circuit.

He studied with Enrique Pla, and made his debut in rock groups, such as Almas Vertiginosas, Lex and Sonido X, later worked with groups of different formats, including Clave Azul and Impacto, until reaching Grupo Proyecto, by Gonzalo Rubalcaba, which prepared him for his subsequent development as a musician.

With his participation in the album Nueva cubana, Horacio demonstrated his enormous facility for bringing together the syncopations of jazz and son, in a process that he did not hesitate to describe as harmonic and swift.
The polyrhythm provided by "El Negro" and his bandmate, percussionist Roberto Vizcaíno, was the ideal basis for fostering the development of dissimilar structures in which the solos of the band members are exposed knowing that the rhythmic foundations—upon which the improvisations were based—would always be absolutely stable.

Since the distant 80s, Hernández demonstrated that he was a master when it came to performing in complex structures, capable of designing with equal rigor a drum kit with a very stable touch or, if necessary, with rhythmic undulations that alter the tempo (between fugatos and accelerandos), in a singular lesson of work where the percussive element sometimes sets aside its condition as accompaniment to "steal" a prominent first place.

He left Cuba in 1990, and began his career in the United States with live performances with many pop, rock, jazz and Latin jazz musicians, as well as numerous performances on different albums, some of which have been awarded the Grammy award, such as 'Havana' by Roy Hargrove (1997), 'Supernatural' by Carlos Santana (1999), 'No es lo mismo' by Alejandro Sanz (2003) and 'Listen Here' by Eddie Palmieri (2005).

He has recorded with Paquito D'Rivera; worked with tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, and with pianists Edward Simon and Michel Camilo, and with the latter participated in the soundtrack of Two Much; with Pino Daniele, bassists Anthony Jackson and Jack Bruca; Larry Baeder, Carlos Santana, keyboardist and singer Steve Winwood, Mike Sten, Tito Puente, Ramón Valle, Michael Brecker, José Luis Quintana (Changuito), Giovanni Hidalgo, Charles Flores, John Patitucci, Chucho Valdés, Hilario Durán, MacCoy Tyner, Kazumi Watanabe, Manuel Varela, hijo, Papo Vázquez.

He ventured into avant-garde Latin music with Kip Narran and collaborated with Steve Turre. He was drummer for the Tropijazz All-Star and the group Crisol, directed by trumpeter Roy Hargrove. He was part of the band of drummer Robby Ameen.

He was a percussion professor at the University of Rome, Italy; he is a member of the Music Faculty at Berkley, Boston, United States; of the Technical Institute of Percussion in Los Angeles, California, and directs the workshops of KOSA International.

He has toured Brazil, where he participated in the International Cinema Festival of Bahía, with percussionist Carlinhos Brown; Monterrey, Mexico, performed at the International Percussion Festival, and in Bangkok, Thailand. He resides in the United States.

Horacio leading the group Italuba made up also by Dany Noel (bass), Iván (piano and keyboards) and Amik (trumpet and flugelhorn) decided to celebrate 15 years of union and recorded the CD Italuba XV with the participation of percussionists of the caliber of Alex Acuña, Raúl Rekow, Jesús Díaz, Karl Perazzo, Tato Vizcaíno Jr., El Piraña, Giovanni Hidalgo, el Panga, and Luis Conte.