Michel Camilo

Background and career

Camilo grew up in a musical household and received an accordion from his parents as a young child. Though he enjoyed it, he was more drawn to his grandparents' piano, and at age nine he asked his parents for one. They first enrolled him at the Elementary Music School, part of the National Conservatory, and bought him a piano a year later. The school taught him classical playing, and by sixteen he was performing with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic.

He first encountered jazz at fourteen and a half, hearing Art Tatum's solo piano rendition of 'Tea for Two' on the radio, which sparked his desire to learn that style. Over thirteen years at the National Conservatory, he developed classical skills while absorbing bebop and contemporary jazz from Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Amilton Godoy, as well as Horace Silver, Erroll Garner, and Scott Joplin. In 1979 he moved to New York to study at Mannes College and The Juilliard School.

He broke onto the international stage in 1983 when Tito Puente's pianist could not make a Montreal Jazz Festival concert; Puente hired Camilo on a recommendation without hearing him. Cuban reedman Paquito D'Rivera, in the audience, offered Camilo a spot in his band, with whom he toured internationally for four years and recorded two albums.

Association with other musicians

Michel Camilo’s long-running trio once featured his close friends Anthony Jackson on contrabass guitar and Cliff Almond on drums. After the trio’s Grammy-winning Live at the Blue Note, Charles Flores took over on bass. More recently, drummer Dafnis Prieto joined the group, and this new lineup put out the album Spirit of the Moment in April 2007. Over his career, Camilo has shared the stage with an enormous list of artists: Tito Puente, Paquito D’Rivera, Dizzy Gillespie, Katia Labèque, Toots Thielemans, Airto Moreira, Chuck Mangione, Stanley Turrentine, Claudio Roditi, Nancy Alvarez, Mongo Santamaría, George Benson, Eddie Palmieri, Jon Faddis, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Lew Soloff, Tania Maria, Jaco Pastorius, Patato, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Chuck Loeb, Giovanni Hidalgo, Guarionex Aquino, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Valentin, Flora Purim, Delfeayo Marsalis, Chucho Valdés, Joe Lovano, Herbie Hancock, Tomatito, John Patitucci, David Sanchez, Hiromi Uehara, Cachao, Marco Rizo, Marcus Roberts, Steve Gadd, Danilo Perez, Gary Burton, Billy Taylor, Dave Weckl, Hilton Ruiz, Roy Hargrove, Romero Lubambo, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Leny Andrade, Bireli Lagrene, Marian McPartland, Leonard Slatkin, Arturo Sandoval, Frank Colón, Aisha Syed Castro, Béla Fleck, Lou Marini, Cliff Almond, Juan Luis Guerra 4.40, and Mark Walker.

He also serves as an ambassador for Music Traveler GmbH, a role he shares with Billy Joel, Hans Zimmer, John Malkovich, Sean Lennon, and Adrien Brody.