Arturo Sandoval
Country: Cuba
Arturo Sandoval was born in Artemisa, a small town in Cuba, on November 6, 1949. In the 1970s, he co-founded Irakere, which became Cuba's most important Jazz ensemble, with saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera and pianist Chucho Valdes.
Sandoval's talent has led him to associations with many great musicians, but perhaps the most important was with Dizzy Gillespie, a longtime proponent of Afro-Cuban music, whom Sandoval calls his spiritual father.
It was while touring with Grammy Award-winning United Nation Orchestra in 1990 that Sandoval requested political asylum. Thanks to the efforts of Gillespie and the US Vice-President, Arturo Sandoval was able to resettle in Miami and he became a full professor at Florida International University.
His American debut «Flight To Freedom» was recorded by GRP in 1991. Nowadays maestro has 25 albums, recorded for the largest world’s recording companies, including music for several movies.
The famous trumpeter’s challenging life story was the subject of the film «For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story», starring Andy García as Arturo Sandoval.
Sandoval has been awarded 10 Grammy Awards, and nominated 17 times. In 2013, the US President Barack Obama personally awarded Arturo Sandoval with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
