Bio

I live in Los Angeles, CA, USA, and have been playing guitar for more than 30 years. I was born in Cuba, and came to the States when I was 6 years old. I consider myself primarily self-taught as a guitarist, although I did study briefly with Jimmy Wyble while I was in college (at Immaculate Heart College in L.A), and I took lessons from Tom Hynes, a great player in Southern California while at Cal State L.A. I studied classical guitar with a fine player named Richard Pattie in the late 70s, and recently with Matthew Elgart, another great guitarist and musician in the Southern California area.

I have a masters degree in music from Cal State University, Los Angeles, where I am part-time faculty in the Music Department. I work regularly as a sideman and leader, and teach guitar privately. In addition, I play a bit of Cuban tres, and do gigs on that instrument occasionally. I recently took up the trumpet, but it will be a while before that instrument leaves the house.

Stylistically, I regard myself primarily as a 'straight-ahead' jazz guitarist, but I enjoy playing blues, funk, Latin, and even rock tunes. My main musical influences are non-guitarists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, and multi-reedman Joe Farrell. Some guitarists whose music I enjoy and respect are Pat Martino, Mike Stern, Jimmy Raney, Marc Ribot, Steve Khan, Andy Summers, John Mc Laughlin, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and Rene Thomas.

I’m married, and my wife Carmen is a Spanish teacher for the L.A. Unified School District. She is very supportive which is a good thing, otherwise I’d probably be living in my car… Between us, we have 5 children, so things stay pretty busy.