Artist Stories

Jazz has been entwined with Latin music since its very beginning—in fact, jazz scholar Christopher Washburne argues that the birth of jazz happened synchronously with the birth of Latin jazz.

While the resonances of Cuban rhythms can be heard from the beginning of jazz history, most historians recognize the relationships among trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, percussionist Chano Pozo and trumpeter and bandleader Mario Bauzá as what introduced mainstream jazz players and audiences to Afro-Cuban jazz.