Biography
Chico Álvarez channels comparable dedication into Cuban-American music as Fidel Castro once devoted to political endurance, whether leading his ensemble, moderating radio broadcasts, crafting a documentary, illustrating record sleeves, or composing essays and annotations on pivotal Latin figures. Distinguish him from the earlier Alfred “Chico” Alvarez, the Canadian trumpeter celebrated in Stan Kenton’s orchestra during the 1940s.
Born in New York yet raised in Cuba, the younger Álvarez reentered the United States precisely when African-American and Cuban idioms began merging intensively—an exchange that has since defined his principal focus and prompted several incisive radio documentaries, among them programs devoted to Dizzy Gillespie.
His connection to WBAI in New York City dates to 1989, encompassing weekly presentations such as The New World Gallery, a program he single-handedly produces, hosts, and engineers, exemplifying his self-reliant, multifaceted approach. Additional hosting duties have taken him to WADO and Harlem’s community outlet WHCR; the Spanish-language program Latino Con Jazz on WADO surveys the city’s diverse urban sounds and consequently draws a sizable bilingual listenership.
Forming the Afro-Caribe Band in 1995, Álvarez recruited several alumni of Nosotros. The ensemble explores Afro-Cuban jazz while incorporating elements from Brazil, Africa, the West Indies, and Europe. Across the ensuing ten years he issued eight albums under his own name as singer and director, frequently supplying the cover artwork himself, and he maintained an active schedule lecturing on salsa at assorted colleges and universities.
Nominated in 2001 for multiple honors by the Latin Jazz USA Awards Committee, Álvarez received that organization’s Chico O’Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his Latin-jazz contributions. The next year he directed a ten-piece orchestra whose personnel included Chocolate Armenteros, Pupi Insua, Little Johnny Rivero, Pedrito Martinez, Angelo Vaillant, Candido Camero, Ralph Irrizary, and Edmar Castaneda. He also works alongside the rhumba ensemble Quinto Mayor under the leadership of conguero Gene Golden; because Golden simultaneously performs with Álvarez’s regular unit, promoters routinely merge the two aggregations for joint appearances.
Beyond his own projects, Álvarez appears on numerous recordings by fellow Latin artists, contributing cover designs, liner essays, and occasional sequencing or editing.
Born in New York yet raised in Cuba, the younger Álvarez reentered the United States precisely when African-American and Cuban idioms began merging intensively—an exchange that has since defined his principal focus and prompted several incisive radio documentaries, among them programs devoted to Dizzy Gillespie.
His connection to WBAI in New York City dates to 1989, encompassing weekly presentations such as The New World Gallery, a program he single-handedly produces, hosts, and engineers, exemplifying his self-reliant, multifaceted approach. Additional hosting duties have taken him to WADO and Harlem’s community outlet WHCR; the Spanish-language program Latino Con Jazz on WADO surveys the city’s diverse urban sounds and consequently draws a sizable bilingual listenership.
Forming the Afro-Caribe Band in 1995, Álvarez recruited several alumni of Nosotros. The ensemble explores Afro-Cuban jazz while incorporating elements from Brazil, Africa, the West Indies, and Europe. Across the ensuing ten years he issued eight albums under his own name as singer and director, frequently supplying the cover artwork himself, and he maintained an active schedule lecturing on salsa at assorted colleges and universities.
Nominated in 2001 for multiple honors by the Latin Jazz USA Awards Committee, Álvarez received that organization’s Chico O’Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his Latin-jazz contributions. The next year he directed a ten-piece orchestra whose personnel included Chocolate Armenteros, Pupi Insua, Little Johnny Rivero, Pedrito Martinez, Angelo Vaillant, Candido Camero, Ralph Irrizary, and Edmar Castaneda. He also works alongside the rhumba ensemble Quinto Mayor under the leadership of conguero Gene Golden; because Golden simultaneously performs with Álvarez’s regular unit, promoters routinely merge the two aggregations for joint appearances.
Beyond his own projects, Álvarez appears on numerous recordings by fellow Latin artists, contributing cover designs, liner essays, and occasional sequencing or editing.
Albums
