Pedro Pablo Martínez

Percussionist, drummer, singer, dancer, orchestra conductor, composer and Cuban educator.

He was born and grew up in Havana. He is a conga player who performs classic Cuban rumbas, Afro-Cuban folklore and religious music. He is a priest of Santería.

He arrived in the United States of America from Havana in 1998 as part of a project titled Spirits Of Havana, directed by his great friend Jane Bunnett, an incredible Canadian saxophonist.

Pedrito plays percussion, bata, cajón, quinto, timbales, maracas, congas, cowbell, shekere, guiro, clave, snare drum, cymbals, among other percussion instruments. He learned his craft on the streets of Havana. He has performed with Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, Brian Lynch and Bruce Springsteen. He settled in New York City - New Jersey area in 1998.

He is a founding member of the band Yerba Buena. They recorded two albums. In 2003, President Alien, and in 2005 their album Island Life ranked number 62 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart.

He is a member of the Nuevo Jazz Latino program which is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Martínez became leader of Pedrito Martinez Group in 2005. His first album, The Pedrito Martinez Group, was released in 2013, with guest artists Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield and Steve Gadd.

On Martínez's 2016 album titled Habana Dreams, the guest artists were Wynton Marsalis, Ruben Blades, Angélique Kidjo and Issac Delgado.

Pedro Pablo "Pedrito" Martínez was born in Havana in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Old Havana. Cayo Hueso is a neighborhood known for the rhythms of rumba of African origin. He grew up near the Palacio de la Rumba theater and saw renowned artists rehearse and perform when he was a child.

The house where he grew up was across the street from a park where he became fascinated with men who played percussion, sang and danced Cuban rumba, a fundamental folk music and dance with deep roots in Africa.
He began his musical career at the age of eleven performing with Cuban artist Tata Guines and Los Muñequitos de Matanzas as a teenager. Pedrito soaked up this style and eventually achieved the status of "rumbero."

He later learned about yoruba, also known as santería, another important Afro-Cuban folklore tradition, a religion of West African origin that has its own powerful music style involving ceremonial drums called Bata. Martínez mastered the extremely complex rhythms played on the batas, as well as the litany of Orisha chants associated with the religion, which eventually led him to assume the role and status of "babalawo" or priest of Santería.

In 1996, Canadian band leader Jane Bunnett, while visiting Cuba, had the occasion to hear Pedrito play and returned two years later to bring him to perform in Montreal with her Spirit of Havana band.

By the fall of 1998, Martínez had established himself in New York City and shortly thereafter won first prize in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Afro-Latin Hand Percussion Competition, presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
In 2000, he appeared in the important documentary about Cuban music, "Calle 54". He has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D'Rivera, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Sting, Steve Turre, Bill Summers, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Brian Lynch (musician), Stefon Harris, Jane Bunnett, Issac Delgado, Eliane Elias, Stefon Harris, Angélique Kidjo, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Conrad Herwig, Edie Brickell, Rubén Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Esperanza Spalding, Alfredo Rodríguez (pianist born in 1985), Elton John and Los Hombres Calientes and has contributed to more than 50 albums.

Pedrito Martínez was a founding member of the successful Afro-Cuban/Afro-Beat band Yerba Buena, which was formed in 2004, and with which he recorded two albums and toured the world. His career as a leader of the orchestra, the Pedrito Martinez Group, began in 2005 in New York with a four-night-a-week residency at Guantanamera, a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, where, once word got out, he began to attract musicians like Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Steve Winwood, Taj Mahal and Roger Waters.

The Pedrito Martinez Group, the first album recorded by Pedrito as a leader, was released in October 2013 on Motema Music. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album and was chosen among NPR's Favorite Albums of 2013 and the Boston Globe Critics' "Top Ten Albums of 2013". Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield and Steve Gadd appeared as special guests.

Around the same time, a flamenco music album, Rumba de la Isla, was recorded with a different group of musicians, distributed by Sony Masterworks. Habana Dreams, the second album by Pedrito Martínez Group, was recorded largely in Cuba and was released on June 10, 2016 on Motema Music. Among the guests are Ruben Blades, Issac Delgado, Wynton Marsalis and Angelique Kidjo.

In February 2019, Pedrito Martínez and Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez released a duo album called Duologue that was selected by NPR for a first listen: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/687794667/first-listen-alfredo-rodr-guez-pedrito-martinez-duologue.

In February 2019, NPR released a performance by Pedrito Martínez Group that was filmed in January for the Tiny Desk series. https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/694731448/the-pedrito-martinez-group-tiny-desk-concert.

In February 2021 Martínez announced that he would release a new album titled 'Acertijos' (Riddles) on March 19 with special guests such as Eric Clapton, Jon Faddis, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Isaac Delgado, and more through his Eshuni Records label and Immediate Family Records.

Credits

2019 Duologue Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez Congas, Bata, Snare drum, Cymbals, Percussion, Vocals
2017 (U) nity is Power New Cuba (U) nity Featured Artist
2017 MONK'estra, vol. 2 John Beasley Bata, Congas, Guest Artist
2016 Distilled from Havana / Chamalongo Jane Bunnett Vocals
2016 Habana Dreams The Pedrito Martinez Group Producer, Liner Notes, Vocals, Congas, Band Member, Arranger, Bata, Composer
2016 New Direction Herlin Riley Congas
2016 Cosmic Adventure Scott Tixier Congas
2016 Latin Wood: A Latin Jazz Interpretation of the Music of Woody Shaw Brian Lynch Congas, Timbales, Soloist
2015 Tumbao Without Limits Kamarata Jazz / Orozco / César Orozco Maracas, Background Vocals, Bongos, Vocals
2015 The Pyramid of the Bronx Carlos Henríquez Bata, Featured Artist
2015 L'ó Dá Fún Bàtá Román Díaz Producer, Arranger, Liner Notes, Itotele
2014 Boardwalk Empire, vol. 3: Music from the HBO Series HBO Series Percussion, Featured Artist
2014 Juice Medeski Congas, Guiro
2014 First Class to Havana Aymee Nuviola Featured Artist
2013 Far From Over Bill Cosby Congas
2013 The Longest Night Concha Buika Percussion, Background Vocals
2013 Rumba de la Isla Pedrito Martínez Lead Artist, Arranger, Vocals, Congas, Cowbell, Background Vocals, Chekere, Composer
2013 The Pedrito Martinez Group The Pedrito Martinez Group Composer
2013 Elevator Overdubs Umberto Echo Bata, Percussion
2012 Bamako on Bus Daniel Freedman Lead Personnel, Cajón, Congas, Featured Artist, Vocals
2013 Rumba is a Wonderful Thing: A Tribute to Billy Strayhorn Paul Carlon Bata, Congas, Vocals
2011 A Foreign Affair Spyro Gyra Congas
2011 Chico and Rita Bebo Valdés Lead Artist, Vocals
2011 Light My Fire Eliane Elias Congas
2010 Amarte Aphrodite / Aphrodite Cajón, Quinto, Shekere, Vocals, Background Vocals
2010 Timbasa Mark Weinstein Producer, Congas, Bata, Timbales, Percussion, Composer
2009 The Ancients Speak Melvin Gibbs Vocals
2009 Jazz Clazz Paquito D'Rivera / Sabine Meyer Cajón, Percussion
2009 You Give Now Versus Now Jason Lindner Congas, Vocals
2008 In These Shoes Claudia Acuña / Arturo O'Farrill Lead Personnel, Vocals, Percussion
2007 Con Alma Mark Weinstein Lead Personnel, Congas
2005 Slave of Africa
2003 President Alien Yerba Buena Composer

Festivals

2018 - BRIC JazzFest in Brooklyn, New York
2017 - Jazz Fest, New Orleans, Louisiana
2017 - Spoleto Festival, Charleston, South Carolina
2014-15 - World Premiere of Jazz at Lincoln Center Season Ochas for a Big Band with Afro-Cuban Percussionist Pedrito Martínez with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
2012 - Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. [13]

Awards and Nominations

2000 - Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition - Pedrito Martinez - Afro-Latin Hand Drum Prize - 1st Place
2004 Grammy Awards President Alien (Yerba Buena) - Best Latin, Urban or Alternative Rock Album [3] - Nominated
2014 Grammy Awards The Longest Night (Concha Buika) - Best Latin Jazz Album [19] - Nominated
2016 - Boston Globe World Music Albums
2016 - No. 1 Latin Jazz Album - Best Jazz Album by NPR Critics [14]