Bobby Sanabria

Bobby Sanabria stands as a fixture in New York’s music world and embodies multiple creative disciplines at once. Beyond his command of percussion, he directs ensembles, writes and arranges music, leads orchestras, produces recordings, instructs students, and makes documentary films. He continues a distinguished lineage of Nuyorican trailblazers who elevated the city’s Latin jazz community onto the global stage. Seven Grammy nominations have recognized projects such as his 2004 large-ensemble release 50 Years of Mambo: A Tribute to Perez Prado and the 2007 recording Big Band Urban Folktales—the first Latin jazz album to reach the top position on the Jazz Weekly National Chart—along with 2009’s Kenya Revisited Live!!! and 2011’s Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!!. Through these efforts Sanabria established the contemporary benchmark for vigorously swinging, forward-leaning Latin jazz, and his groups have shaped subsequent generations of jazz listeners. He has also performed as featured soloist alongside the WDR Big Band, the Airmen of Note, the U.S. Jazz Ambassadors, and the University of Calgary Big Band. His layered rhythmic conception of swing has opened doors for collaborations and tours with an array of leading jazz figures that includes Dizzy Gillespie, Candido, Chico O'Farrill, Henry Threadgill, Roswell Rudd, and Michelle Shocked.

Raised amid challenging conditions in the South Bronx, Sanabria attended a Tito Puente performance at seventeen, gained backstage access, and requested permission to join the percussion section onstage; the opportunity ignited his commitment to Latin jazz as a profession. He completed studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and received his diploma in 1979. Soon afterward he assembled the ensemble Ascensión, which earned a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1983 during its association with Mongo Santamaria. Sanabria contributed as a featured performer to the Mambo Kings film soundtrack and participated in two Grammy-nominated sessions with Tito Puente and with Mario Bauzá & His Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, among them the landmark Tanga album.

Flying Fish Records issued his first leader date, New York City Ache!, in November 1993; the collection paired him in percussion duets with Puente and included a guest turn by Paquito d'Rivera, while the liner notes supplied a glossary of Latin jazz terminology. During the ensuing seven years Sanabria balanced teaching and touring commitments with his own groups and served as a sought-after studio musician on projects by Carola Grey, Mario Bauza, Yomo Toro, Frank London, Charles McPherson, and Larry Harlow. His next official solo album, Afro-Cuban Dream: Live and in Clave!, appeared in 2000 and presented his distinctive rhythmic jazz at its most vivid; the recording earned a Grammy nomination. Bobby Sanabria & Quarteto Ache followed in 2002, solidifying his standing among reviewers as “the Buddy Rich of the Latin jazz percussive arena.” After further touring he worked as a sideman on albums by saxophonist Lou Caputo, Joe Chambers, Hilary Noble, and Chris Washburne.

Sanabria resumed leadership duties with 2007’s Big Band Urban Folktales and the 2009 Grammy-nominated Kenya Revisited, the latter marking his debut as conductor of the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. His 2011 release Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! likewise received a Grammy nomination. Beyond his educational and recording activities in Latin jazz, he maintained an active schedule of club and festival appearances worldwide, including a guest-soloist engagement with the Michael Gibbs big band. In 2012 he assembled a fresh large ensemble and released Multiverse, which featured La Bruja and Chareneè Wade and garnered two Grammy nominations. He again led the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra on 2014’s ¡Qué Viva Harlem! and contributed to additional sessions such as Ben Lapidus’ Ochosi Blues, Eugene Marlow’s Changes and Obrigado Brasil, and Eli Fountain’s Percussion Discussion on Masterpiece.

While sustaining his teaching schedule, drum and percussion clinics, and touring, Sanabria also presented performances and lectures to thousands of New York City public-school students, educators, and families through the city’s Arts Exposure Program and contributed multiple articles to Modern Drummer. In summer 2018 he and his Multiverse Big Band unveiled West Side Story: Reimagined to mark the production’s sixtieth anniversary and Leonard Bernstein’s centennial; a portion of proceeds supported the Jazz Foundation of America’s Puerto Rico Relief Fund.