Healdsburg Jazz Announces 2023 Artist in Residence:
John Santos
For the past 3 years, Healdsburg Jazz has selected a musician that represents the values, goals, and artistic excellence of our organization to serve as our Artist in Residence. Healdsburg Jazz is honored and proud to announce that percussionist, composer, bandleader, and educator John Santos will be our 2023 Artist in Residence!!! We are thrilled to be working with John in both concert presentations and with our educational programming. John will also be a featured artist in our Summer Festival June 17-25, 2023, which will be the coveted 25th Anniversary for Healdsburg Jazz.
Seven-time Grammy-nominated percussionist, US Artists Fontanals Fellow, and 2013-2014 SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, John Santos, is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin music in the world today. Born in San Francisco, California, November 1, 1955, he was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean traditions of his family, surrounded by music.
He is known for his innovative use of traditional forms and instruments in combination with contemporary music, and has earned much respect and recognition as a prolific performer, composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer, and record/event producer whose career has spanned four decades. He illuminates and illustrates the historical and evolving intersection of Jazz and traditional Afro-Latin music.
John was the director of the Orquesta Tipica Cienfuegos (1976-1980) and the award-winning Orquesta Batachanga (1981-1985). He was founder and director of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated Machete Ensemble (1985-2006), with whom he released nine CDs with special guests from Puerto Rico, Cuba, NY, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, mostly on John’s Machete Records label that was founded in 1984 and continues today. He currently directs the highly acclaimed John Santos Sextet Latin jazz ensemble with seven full-length albums under their belt to date.
John was just recently honored with a lifetime achievement award from the prestigious Jazz Educator’s Network. He’s also the subject of the powerful documentary on his life and music titled “Skin to Skin”, which will be a featured film during our summer festival.
John is an inspiration and an incredibly influential artist. His commitment to excellence, community leadership, and generosity are examples of why we are honored to work with him. John will be our 3rd Artist in Residence and follows our distinguished previous musicians, Destiny Muhammad (harpist and composer 2022) and Tammy L. Hall (pianist and composer 2021)—2 amazing artists who made our organization stronger and who created powerful and enduring work. We enthusiastically welcome our new artist in resident Maestro John Santos to our Healdsburg Jazz family. Stay connected to our newsletters and website for performances and educational events featuring John Santos and his various ensembles.