Charlie Sepulveda

Recognized widely as an accomplished trumpeter, bandleader, and instructor, Charlie Sepúlveda has built his reputation on vibrant jazz recordings that merge hard bop with Latin and Afro-Cuban elements. Serving as a professor at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, he first surfaced during the 1980s alongside cousin Charlie Palmieri and additional Latin figures such as Tito Puente and Dave Valentin. Across his career he has contributed to sessions by musicians spanning many genres, among them Dizzy Gillespie, David Byrne, Danilo Perez, and They Might Be Giants. Leading his ensemble the Turnaround, Sepúlveda has issued numerous albums, among them 1993’s Algo Nuestro and 2017’s Mr. EP: A Tribute to Eddie Palmieri. His honors include a Latin Grammy for the big-band project with Jon Secada, To Beny Moré with Love. In 2021 he united many of these strands on the album This Is Latin Jazz.

Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1962, Sepúlveda developed an early fascination with music once his parents introduced him to the work of Louis Armstrong and Herb Alpert. The family relocated in 1970 to Caguas, Puerto Rico, where he took up the trumpet after discovering a discarded mouthpiece in his yard. He progressed rapidly through high school, then refined his technique at the Escuela Libre de Música de Puerto Rico before graduating from the City College of New York, where Ron Carter and William Fielder served as his instructors.

As a working musician Sepúlveda entered the field in the 1970s and early 1980s, performing first with his cousin, the noted Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri. He quickly became immersed in New York’s lively club circuit, blending Latin, Afro-Cuban, and post-bop jazz while collaborating with figures such as Mongo Santamaria and Dave Valentin. With Palmieri he appeared on the 1989 release Sueño. Additional sessions linked him to Talking Heads, David Byrne, and They Might Be Giants. He also recorded and toured regularly with Tito Puente, including a contribution to the Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated soundtrack for the 1991 film Mambo Kings.

Sepúlveda issued his first solo album, The New Arrival, in 1991, fronting the Turnaround with saxophonist David Sánchez and drummer Adam Cruz. The recording included a guest spot by pianist Danilo Pérez and reflected influences drawn from Rafael Cortijo, Kenny Dorham, and Art Blakey. He followed a year later with Algo Nuestro, again spotlighting saxophonist Sánchez and adding trombonist Steve Turre as a guest. The remainder of the decade remained productive: 1996 brought the third album, Watermelon Man, while further sessions paired him with pop, Latin, and jazz artists including Hilton Ruiz, Terence Trent D’Arby, Bobby Valentin, and the TropiJazz All-Stars. He also worked extensively with trumpet idol Dizzy Gillespie, joining the United Nation Orchestra and performing at the Blue Note concerts later documented on Gillespie’s final album, 1992’s To Diz with Love: Diamond Jubilee Recordings. In addition, Sepúlveda took part in the star-studded 1997 Masters at Work project Nuyorican Soul.

The trumpeter returned in 2003 with Feeling Good Again, continuing to expand the scope of Latin jazz. Boulevard appeared in 2009. In 2017 he released Mr. EP: A Tribute to Eddie Palmieri and received a Latin Grammy for his big-band collaboration with Jon Secada, To Beny Moré with Love; that album also reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. Beyond performing, Sepúlveda serves as musical director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Rockefeller Foundation in Puerto Rico, as well as professor at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. He further directs the Jazz workshop component of the Trinidad Pan Jazz Fest in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2021 he highlighted his Latin heritage on High Note with the album This Is Latin Jazz.