Ignacio Berroa

Ignacio Berroa ( born July 8, 1953 in Havana ) is an American Latin and jazz drummer and percussionist.

Life and work

Ignacio Berroa initially learned violin and switched to drums at age eleven. He studied from 1964 to 1967 at the Escuela Nacional de Arte ( National School of the Arts ) and from 1968 to 1970 at the National Conservatory. He then played during his military service in a Cuban military band and joined in the early 1970s with Felipe Dulzaides on. From 1975 on, he played with the experimental band ICAIC; then when the Cuban Radio and Television Orchestra. In 1980 he moved to New York City and worked in the bands of Mario Bauza, Jerry Gonzalez, Ray Mantilla, Paquito D' Rivera, Machito, McCoy Tyner, Don Lanphere and Kip Hanrahan ( Coup de Tete ) and to 1993 in Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra ( Live at the Royal Festival Hall, 1991). He also worked on with David Amram, Chico Buarque, Chick Corea, Randal Corsicans, Lou Donaldson, Mike Longo, James Moody, Jaco Pastorius, Danilo Perez, Tito Puente, Jack Bruce, Claudio Roditi, Hilton Ruiz, Luciana Souza and Clark Terry. He also led his own quartet.

In 2001, he played in a trio with Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba ( Nocturne ) and participated in Rubalcabas album Supernova; In 2007, his album " Codes", which was released on Blue Note Records, among others, the the bassist John Patitucci participated, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

From 1991 to 1994 he worked as a professor at Florida International University. In 1995 he published his instructional video Mastering The Art of Afro - Cuban drumming, the downbeat distinguished as particularly instructive. He also wrote the textbooks Groovin ' In Clave and A New Way of Groovin'.