Vancouver Jazz Pianist 1

Born in Montreal, this Vancouver Jazz Pianist grew up in Bogotá, Colombia. At the beginning of his musical career, he played keyboards and sang with a Rock band in High School – they called it “Shade of Black”, and he played mostly covers of U2, Miguel Mateos and Soda Stereo songs, among other popular music of the early 90s.

He was then drafted to the Colombian army, and joined the presidential marching band, playing trumpet (and becoming section leader!) during his one-year service.

Vancouver Jazz Pianist true calling

Later in university, this Vancouver Jazz Pianist joined a Ska-Rock band called “El Jardín de Daniela” (Daniela’s Garden) while majoring in Industrial Engineering, with this group they won a couple of music contests (“Notas Radioactiva” and “Concurso de Música Kool”) and won some studio recording time. He soon realized his true calling was music, and after 3 semesters, switched over to a Music program with an Audio emphasis at Universidad Javeriana.

In music school this Vancouver Jazz Pianist was invited to join the nationally-renowned Rock band “Poligamia”, and went on to record 2 albums with them on the Sony Music label. He also contributed original songs, which were in a more “bluesy” style, and this would prove to be the beginning of his interest in the genre of Jazz. Poligamia’s lead singer, Andres Cepeda, is now an even more successful recording artist. While in Bogotá on holiday, he visited Andres in the studio during the recording of his first album “Se Morir”, and ended up playing piano on the title track, which quickly became a runaway hit.

Vancouver Jazz Pianist collaboration with Shakira

After some touring with “Poligamia”, this Vancouver Jazz Pianist was asked to join Pop star Shakira’s band, in the capacity of keyboardist, acoustic rhythm guitarist and vocalist, and he went on to perform with her on 40+ shows all over North, Central, and South America.

Upon finishing that tour, he moved to Vancouver to pursue Audio Engineering studies at Columbia Academy, went on to study composition at SFU, all the while growing his interest in Jazz and the American Songbook. One fine day this Vancouver Jazz Pianist was asked to join a Jazz Band on a 4-month cruise ship engagement, playing all Jazz standards. This really drew the line in the sand for him, as he would fully “convert” to Jazz.

He spent some time aboard Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, and Disney cruise ships, and in 2002 this Vancouver Jazz Pianist released his first Jazz album as vocalist, “Day Dream“. He is accompanied on the album by accomplished pianist Chris Sigerson, and well-known bassist and producer Rick Kilburn.

On July 6th, 2008, he released “It’s Always You” to a sold-out room at the Jazz Cellar in Vancouver! The album features arrangements by Bill Coon, Bill Runge and Jill Townsend, and its roster is a who’s-who of Vancouver Jazz musicians. This album is not to be missed!

Since then, this Vancouver Jazz Pianist has continued to perform in the Greater Vancouver area with different bands and under his own name. In 2013, he and Nick Apivor started a Cal Tjader tribute band called “Caliente” and have had some performances in local music venues.