ARTURO SANDOVAL

Latin jazz trumpeter-pianist

“Oh my goodness, no. I can’t remember the first record album that I bought.

“But the first jazz record that I ever heard was by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Oh yeah. That was my very first encounter with jazz. I had never heard any jazz before, and, my goodness, that record made the biggest impression on me that I’ve ever had in my life.

“Before that, I had only heard Cuban traditional music because I grew up in the middle of the countryside on the island. And when somebody played for me the Dizzy and Charlie Parker album, I thought, ‘Oh, wow. What is this?’ And I’m still trying to figure it out. All these years later, it still sounds so fresh.”