Nachito Herrera at Musical Instrument Museum

Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera arrives at MIM on the heels of receiving an American Heritage Award from the American Immigration Council, one of three musicians in 2012 (along with Australian Tommy Emmanuel and South Korean Yura Lee) to receive this prestigious prize. (The last Latin musician to be receive the honor was Carlos Santana.)
Herrera stunned Cuban audiences at the age of twelve when he performed Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no. 2 with the Havana Symphony Orchestra. When he was fifteen, Rubén González (of Buena Vista Social Club and Afro-Cuban All Stars fame) took him under his wing to teach him traditional Cuban styles. In the late 1990s, Herrera joined the famed Cuban Orquesta Cubanismo as its pianist, musical director, and arranger. With its worldwide appeal, Cubanismo performed at many of the world’s finest concert halls and prestigious festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and the United States. After hearing Herrera’s first U.S. album, jazz critic and Playboy Guide to Jazz author Neil Tesser wrote that his “virtuosic technique and phantasmagorical fire . . . vaults him into the upper echelon—a trinity comprising Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and now Nachito Herrera.” A musical favorite of Rubén González, Herrera recently toured North American concert halls, filling the legendary González’s piano chair in the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Herrera triggered more than his share of thunderous ovations on the tour....

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Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera arrives at MIM on the heels of receiving an American Heritage Award from the American Immigration Council, one of three musicians in 2012 (along with Australian Tommy Emmanuel and South Korean Yura Lee) to receive this prestigious prize. (The last Latin musician to be receive the honor was Carlos Santana.)
Herrera stunned Cuban audiences at the age of twelve when he performed Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no. 2 with the Havana Symphony Orchestra. When he was fifteen, Rubén González (of Buena Vista Social Club and Afro-Cuban All Stars fame) took him under his wing to teach him traditional Cuban styles. In the late 1990s, Herrera joined the famed Cuban Orquesta Cubanismo as its pianist, musical director, and arranger. With its worldwide appeal, Cubanismo performed at many of the world’s finest concert halls and prestigious festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and the United States. After hearing Herrera’s first U.S. album, jazz critic and Playboy Guide to Jazz author Neil Tesser wrote that his “virtuosic technique and phantasmagorical fire . . . vaults him into the upper echelon—a trinity comprising Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and now Nachito Herrera.” A musical favorite of Rubén González, Herrera recently toured North American concert halls, filling the legendary González’s piano chair in the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Herrera triggered more than his share of thunderous ovations on the tour.
“With unbridled freedom, he jams with potent montunos and high-energy timba to solos that can melt snow off the sidewalk.”—Jesse Varela, Latin Beat Magazine
“Ignacio ‘Nachito’ Herrera steps onto the national stage as a fully evolved artist, brimming with confidence, in total command of a vast array of traditional and contemporary Cuban idioms, and imparting a virtuosic touch on all aspects of this shimmering production. Herrera’s inventive arrangements and the expertise of his musicians produce a program that exudes an organic quality from start to finish.”—All About Jazz
“It was the pianist’s night on Wednesday . . . Nachito Herrera, working with the group Cubanismo, was having a good time. On a cha-cha-cha he tore up the music, dropping a series of quotes—melodies from other cha-cha-chas—into his solo; the chorus picked up one and sang it. He worked over the dissonance of a whole tone scale, and flatted the fifth degree of a chord, ending a phrase on its bitterness. Left and right hands sprayed contrasting rhythms, and the intensity of the band soared in reaction.”—Peter Watrous, New York Times

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