BIOGRAPHY
Alberto Aguilera studied percussion with some of Cuba's most influential musicians of the Twentieth Century, including Lena Cuchito of the Orquesta Anacaona. While still a student at the Conservatorio Alejandro Garcia Caturla, Aguilera joined a select group of musicians that redefined the contemporary Cuban sound in the cabarets and clubs of Hanana's luxury hotels. In the 1960's and 70's he played at the Hotel National with Tico Alvarez, at the Salon Rojo in the Capri Hotel, and at the Riviera Hotel's cabaret.
Aguilera was one of the creators of Jazz Monday's at the legendary night club Jhonny Dream, which nurtured Cuban Jazz greats like Paquito D' Rivera and Emiliano Salvador. Into the 1970's Aguilera groups: Los Cromas de 4", reigned as the house band of the Jhonny Dream. During the same period, Aguilera recorded with Frank Valdez, Orquesta Estudio. He played with the legendary Pedro "Peruchin Juztiz" at the Casino de la Playa and the Casino Riverside, finally accompanying him to the pinnacle of Havana nighlife,the Tropicana.
In the 1980's Al Aguilera came to the United States. He attended to Center of Liberal Arts (New York, NY)
With a degree in Television Production in 1992. In the mid-1990's Aguilera returned to the stage with ensembles, notably Los Campeones Cubanos and the Al Aguilera trio, that remain true to the syncretism spirit of Cuban culture. With the "New Modern Cuban Latin Jazz Quartet", Aguilera charts the future of Latin music in the United States in collaboration with Elio Villafranca, a gifted representative of Cuba's new generation of musicians.
Pianist, percussionist, educador and author Elio Villafranca graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, in the United States in 1995. Since then he has dedicated his teaching, research, and performances to preserving Afro-Cuban traditions and extending the innovative reach of Latin Jazz.
The New Modern Cuban Jazz Quartet unites two generations of Cuban musical pioneers.
Alberto Aguilera and Elio Villafranca's use Jazz forms renews Cuban traditions fromthe 1940's 50's and 60's bringing a uniquely American, unmistakably Cuban sound to new audiences. From 2000 to 2006 they performed weekly at Philadelphia's celebrated Restaurant Alma de Cuba, and have appeared at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Mayfair Festival of the Arts, and other area events. Y de que saben ....saben
