Pepe Rivero

Pianist, composer, pedagogue, producer, promoter, his name appears among the most relevant and versatile Cuban pianists of recent decades, with repeated interests in blending works of classicism with jazz and genres of popular music.

Pianist and composer Pepe Rivero is part of a "New Generation" of Cuban musicians who have emerged on the international jazz scene.

Pepe is from the city of Manzanillo. After completing his piano studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, where he received classical training, his vocation led him to jazz.

In 1998 he moved to Spain as part of Cuban musician Isaac Delgado's group, then in 2001 in New York, he meets Paquito D'Rivera. That same year he begins a concert tour with Paquito D'Rivera and Celia Cruz, whom he accompanied in her concerts in Spain as well as in recording sessions, and from the very beginning he was considered an essential component of the band.

In 2001, he founded his own ensemble, together with trumpeter Manuel Machado, saxophonist Bobby Martínez, drummer Georvis Pico, percussionist Yuri Nogueira, and Santi Greco on electric bass.

Winner in 2001 and 2002 of the Third SGAE Prize for Latin Jazz Composition in Havana, Cuba. He was nominated for the 2011 Latin Grammys with Paquito D'Rivera for the DVD-album titled "Paquito D'Rivera & Pepe Rivero Live in Barcelona". Invited as pianist and composer on Paquito D'Rivera's album, winner of the 2015 Latin Grammys "Jazz Meets the Classic". Nominated for the 2017 Latin Grammys for Yuvisney Aguilar's album "Piango Piango". In 2018, at the request of the International Festival of Sacred Art in Madrid, he premiered the work Yoruba Suite in the Red Room of the Teatros del Canal with the young orchestra of the Alfonso X El Sabio University. In 2019 he premiered in the Chamber hall of the National Auditorium at the request of the CNDM the trumpet concerto In Blanco & Negro performed by trumpeter Manuel Blanco.

Pepe has participated with other ensembles in internationally renowned jazz festivals: such as the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreal, Jazz Middelheim, Denmark, Tokyo, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Greece, Finland, Austria, Turkey, Australia, Washington, New Haven and New York, Madrid, Bilbao, Las Palmas and Vitoria in Spain. Recently he has presented his new album "Los Boleros de Chopin" at the Palermo Jazz Festival in Sicily.

He has worked and collaborated with different artists such as Paquito D'Rivera, David Murray, Omara Portuondo, Jerry Gonzales, Isaac Delgado, Javier Colina, Perico Sambeat, Bobby Martinez, Alain Perez, Gerardo Nuñez, La Barberia del Sur, Diego "El Cigala", Eva Cortes, Sole Jimenez, Paloma San Basilio, Ana Belén, Lucrecia, Elsa Baeza, Angela Carrasco, Pasión Vega, Lole Montoya, Jose Luis Perales as musical director on the American tour in 2009 and 2012.

He was Musical Director of the Latin Jazz Festival in Spain called "CLAZZ" born in February 2011, which is Europe's first Latin Jazz Festival.

Pepe Rivero accompanied Celia Cruz in her concerts as well as in recording sessions and from the very beginning was considered an essential component of the band. His work was not limited to performing the legendary performer's repertoire, but he also contributed arrangements.

Pepe Rivero, coming from an accredited family of musicians, is a faithful exponent of this style of pianistic expression that he continues to enrich today.

This musician possesses the virtue of extrapolating a rhythm and articulating a new body around it, engendering a differentiated sound structure, which gives him the basis for new variations.

Pepe Rivero, as a Latin jazz pianist, almost always starts from the structure of some leading genre of Cuban music, such as guaguancó, cha-cha-chá, guajira, conga, etc., and around it incorporates a series of intricate and complex harmonies that he draws from his vast knowledge as a jazz musician and composer with a classical heritage.

The music that Pepe Rivero composes, which also integrates other genres within Latin jazz, such as flamenco, bossa-nova, and classical jazz itself, is capable of creating diverse atmospheres in a single composition, transitioning with such skill from one to another, that it gives the impression that the music is just one: indivisible and universal.

He has published several albums: Monk & The Cuban Rumba "Pepe Rivero Big Band", Paquito D'Rivera & Pepe Rivero Live in Barcelona, Los Boleros de Chopin (2010), Friday Night in Spanish Harlem (2008), Tonight Latin (2008), Quizás, quizás, quizás (2016), Granma Nights (2018).

He combines his artistic career with pedagogical work. Professor of improvisation, Cuban and Latin rhythms at the Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana, he has taught master classes at various universities in the USA, Canada, and Denmark. He has been part of the Creative Music teaching staff since 2002, teaching Piano and Combo.

He recognizes guiding influences in his career from pianists such as Plays Lecuona, Ignacio Cervantes, Manuel Saumell, Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Bebo Valdés, Peruchin, Rubén Gonzales, Frank Emilio, Emiliano Salvador, Gabriel Hernández, McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum, Red Garland, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett

With a personal discography that he shares with Javier Colina, María Berasarte, Enrique Heredia El Negri, Bobby Martínez, and where his album Los Boleros de Chopin stands out, pianist Pepe Rivero has also collaborated in recordings and concerts with David Murray, Jerry González, Perico Sambeat, Gerardo Nuñez, Lucrecia, Alain Pérez, La Barbería del Sur, Tony Zenet, Diego "El Cigala", Eva Cortés, Sole Giménez, Paloma San Basilio, Ana Belén, Elsa Baeza, Ángela Carrasco, Rafael, Pasión Vega, Lole Montoya, Jose Luis Perales