Pedrito Martinez

Born in 1973 in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, Pedrito Martinez grew up immersed in Cuban rumba and Afro‑Cuban traditions of singing, dance and percussion. A vocalist and percussionist, he developed a musical language that blends rumba, Afro‑Cuban folkloric and religious traditions, Latin jazz, timba and touches of Afrobeat, with congas and batá drums at the core of his practice. After early beginnings in Cuba with Tata Güines and later Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Pedrito Martinez relocated to New York in 1998. There he continued his career across the New York jazz scene, Latin projects and traditional repertoires, and shortly afterwards won the first prize in the Thelonious Monk Competition in the Afro‑Latin Hand Percussion category. A founding member of Yerba Buena, he contributed to President Alien (2003) and Island Life (2005). He later launched the Pedrito Martinez Group, active since the mid‑2000s, and released albums under his name: The Pedrito Martinez Group (2013), Rumba de la Isla (2013), Habana Dreams (2016), Duologue (2019) with pianist Alfredo Rodríguez, and Acertijos (2021). Over the years he has also performed or recorded with Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, Rubén Blades, Angélique Kidjo, Eliane Elias and Bruce Springsteen.