Arturo Sandoval: 1949—: Jazz trumpeter

Described respectively by reviewers in Billboard as "pushing the limits of his instrument," in The All Music Guide as "technically flawless," and in the Baltimore Sun as "a powerhouse," jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval ranked among Cuba's most exciting musical exports of the late twentieth century. As founder and member of the Cuban supergroup Irakere, Sandoval attracted international attention in the 1970s and 1980s in spite of the limitations on contact with the outside world put in place by Cuba's Communist dictatorship. Since coming to the United States in 1989, Sandoval has been a fixture of the Latin jazz circuit and has broadened his musical reach into new areas.

Sandoval was born on November 6, 1949, in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in the nearby small town of Artemisa. The son of an auto mechanic, he was, as he told London's Financial Times, "a musician in a non-musical family." He dropped out of school at age twelve, taught himself to play the trumpet, and joined a local ensemble, playing the traditional Cuban music called son, the Afro-Cuban hybrid that underlies many contemporary Latin styles. When he was lucky enough to be able to lay hands on a piano, a rarity in desperately poor rural Cuba, he worked on that instrument as well.

Studied Classical Trumpet

Sandoval worked hard and persevered through the musical-instrument shortage and the general hardship that arose with U.S. attempts to destabilize Fidel Castro's Communist government through covert military action and an ongoing trade embargo. When he was fifteen he won a scholarship to study at the National School for the Arts in Havana. The curriculum there consisted of classical music, however, with all other genres off limits; Sandoval's teacher was a Russian orchestral trumpeter. After three years of classical study Sandoval felt himself at a disadvantage when he joined a large Havana jazz band with a six-piece trumpet section.

His conservatory stint paid big dividends in terms of sheer technique. When the great U.S. jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie visited Cuba and became friends with Sandoval in 1977, the Cuban trumpeter, who idolized Gillespie's playing, was amazed when the aging Gillespie asked him for technical instruction. Founding the band Irakere with saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera and pianist Chucho Valdes in 1973, Sandoval became known for his sheer, unequaled virtuosity. His agile navigation through the trumpet's difficult upper register is legendary.

Nevertheless, the major influence on Sandoval's playing was not classical music but the progressive jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s known as bebop. As a teenager Sandoval heard the classic bebop recordings of Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker. "That really hooked me up," he told the Baltimore Sun. "I said, 'Wow, this is what I would love to learn.' And I'm still tryin'". Irakere's music evolved into a fiery blend of Cuban rhythms and fabulously accomplished bebop solos, Sandoval's first and foremost.

Stayed in Cuba for Family's Sake

Hungering for interaction with other musicians, Sandoval was occasionally allowed to travel abroad. Irakere performed at New York's Carnegie Hall in the late 1970s, and a recording of the concert brought Sandoval the first of his four Grammy awards. Yet Sandoval began to chafe at the musical restrictions of life under Communism. He thought of seeking asylum on foreign trips during this period but held back because of his wife Marianela—whom he had married in 1975 and who was still devoted to the ideals of Cuban Communism—and because of his young son, Arturo Jr.

But Sandoval grew disenchanted with the way the Cuban government used Irakere as an advertisement for its own image, and he left the band in 1981, after D'Rivera left for the United States. He formed a band of its own; despite government disapproval he was voted Cuba's instrumentalist of the year for three years running in the early 1980s. Recording prolifically, Sandoval impressed U.S. reviewers who had been alerted to his music by Gillespie's advocacy. Scott Yanow of the All Music Guide opined that Sandoval was in "near-miraculous form" on the 1988 release Straight Ahead. "Just listen to him tear through 'Blue Monk,' playing in the low register with the speed of an Al Hirt before jumping into the stratosphere like Maynard Ferguson," Yanow wrote.

In 1990 Sandoval joined Gillespie and other musicians on a European tour. Before he left Cuba he joined the Communist Party so that he could improve his chances of bringing his family along. The government agreed, and when the tour reached Rome, Sandoval headed for the U.S. embassy. With Gillespie along for support—Gillespie is reported to have placed a phone call to Vice President Dan Quayle at one critical juncture—he requested and was granted political asylum. Sandoval took up residence in Miami, where he has lived ever since.

Broadened Musical Horizons

Taking a teaching job at Florida International University, Sandoval plunged into the U.S. music scene; a Baltimore Sun critic quipped that he seemed to be on the road "about 400 days a year." He reveled in the musical freedom that life in the United States offered, recording, in addition to straight-ahead Latin jazz, an album of classical trumpet concertos (one of them of his own composition) in 1994. A Sandoval concert became a thrilling all-around musical experience, with Sandoval switching at will from trumpet to piano, percussion, and even vocals on occasion. "I don't want people necessarily relating me to a Latino thing," Sandoval was quoted as saying in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "My goal in life is to be a musician. I love music, period. For me, the music is only one: A good one."

After living in Miami for six years, Sandoval applied for U.S. citizenship. At first he was turned down, with officials citing the same Communist Party membership that had helped him escape from Cuba in the first place; his application may have been stalled by Cuban-exile immigration officials in Miami who were suspicious of his recent association with the Castro government. For the next three years Sandoval endured what he described to the Financial Times as a "degrading experience," as he went through six rounds of questioning. In 1998 Sandoval finally became a U.S. citizen; some observers believed that the administration of jazz-loving president Bill Clinton had helped to grease the wheels.

In 2000 HBO released a film about Sandoval's life and he was the film's composer. That film, For Love or Country, featured actor Andy Garcia, whose own family had fled Cuba in the 1960s, as Sandoval. By the first years of the 21st century, Sandoval was something of a living legend. "The trumpet is special," he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "You can whisper, you can scream. The trumpet has no limits." Sandoval's still-growing legion of fans would agree that in his hands, the instrument's possibilities indeed seemed limitless.

Selected discography

To a Finland Station, Pablo, 1983.

Breaking the Sound Barrier, Chicago Caribbean Arts, 1983.

Tumbaito, Messidor, 1986.

Straight Ahead, Jazz House, 1988.

Flight to Freedom, GRP, 1991.

Dreams Come True, GRP, 1993.

Arturo Sandoval Plays Trumpet Concertos, GRP, 1994.

Danzón, GRP, 1994.

Tren Latino, GRP, 1995.

Swingin', GRP, 1996.

The Best of Arturo Sandoval, Milan/Latino, 1997.

Hot House, N-Coded Music, 1998.

Americana, N-Coded Music, 1999.

L.A. Meetings, Cubop, 2001.

My Passion for the Piano, Columbia, 2002.

Sources

Books

Contemporary Musicians, volume 15, Gale, 1995.

Periodicals

Baltimore Sun, July 12, 2001, p. E1.

Billboard, March 19, 1994, p. 12; November 28, 1998, p. 47.

Down Beat, June 1994, p. 41.

Electronic Media, January 1, 2001, p. 39.

Financial Times (London, England), March 10, 2001, p. Off Centre-9.

San Diego Union-Tribune, December 6, 2001, p. Night & Day-18.

Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), May 24, 2002, p. Lagniappe-25.

On-line

All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com

—James M. Manheim