Sammy Figueroa is a childhood friend of the great Latin jazz flautist Dave Valentin and spend many years playing in his band recording and touring. Recently Dave had a stroke and won't be able to play for awhile. The Jazz Foundation of America and many friends have organized a benefit in his honor at the old Village Gate, now called Poisson Rouge. Sammy will be joining drummer Robbie Ameen, bassist Ruben Rodriguez and pianist Bill O'Connell with special guest vibest Dave Samuels and many others.
Every year the Jazz Journalists Association honors excellence in jazz music, recordings, presentation and journalism in a star-studded ceremony. Sammy is honored to be considered one of five finalists for Best Percussionist. The final Awards will be presented at the JJA Jazz Awards Gala at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City on June 20, 2012.
It's been a great honor for Sammy Figueroa to share music with Sonny Rollins over the last few years. The recent Kennedy Center Honors, which occurred on December 4th, featured Sonny, Yo-Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Barbara Cook and Neil Sedaka. Bill Cosby put together a great tribute to Sonny and his life and music. There's a great shot of Sammy and Sonny jamming together that made it in to CBS's December 27th broadcast. As Sonny said, this tribute to him was a tribute to jazz, the American art form. TO SEE BILL COSBY'S KENNEDY CENTER HONORS TRIBUTE TO SONNY ROLLINS PLEASE CLICK HERE
This year's announcement of the Grammy Nominations were bittersweet for Sammy and his team. Both previous albums by Sammy Figueroa & his Latin Jazz Explosion were nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album. But since this category was eliminated this year, the band's third album, Urban Nature, could only be submitted in the Jazz category, along with hundreds of other submissions and unfortunately got lost in the shuffle. Nevertheless, Sammy is proud to have participated as a featured artist in the magnificent concert CD/DVD An Evening With Dave Grusin, which received a nomination for Best Surround Sound and, as a proud member of the Sonny Rollins band, Sammy is a strong presence on Sonny Rollins' Road Shows Vol II, which received two nominations -- one for Best Jazz Album and one for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Sammy doesn't make records for the sake of the Grammy -- he does it all for the music! -- but it's always great to be recognized by one's music industry peers.
In May of 2010 Sammy participated in a unique series of recording sessions, directed by the uniquely talented and visionary producer Bob Belden. The sessions were a tribute to the "Spanish side of Miles Davis", with whom Sammy had the honor of working with for several years. Produced with the same approach as many of Miles' albums, Bob placed some of the greatest musicians in the world together in one room and let them make their magic. Musicians brought in from Spain included Chano Dominguez, Christina Pato, Jorge Pardo, Carlos Benavent and the genius American musician Jerry Gonzales. New York-based players included John Benitez, Edmar Castaneda and Ron Carter. Now this legendary music has been released on E-1 Records in a double CD set. Sammy says "Bob had a very ambitious and daring vision for this project. The whole experience was very creative and it was fun to be reunited musically with so many great friends and musicians. Bob made it feel like the old days, when musicians really played together."
Fans of superb Latin jazz will finally be able to hear Sammy's third album, 'Urban Nature' produced by Rachel Faro, with incredible music composed and arranged by Venezuelans maestros Silvano Monasterios and Gabriel Vivas. With special guest appearances by Ed Calle, Mike Orta and Venezuelan percussionist Jose Gregorio Hernandez, this album is a true labor of love, combining playful fusion jazz with classical beauty and dazzling displays of virtuousity. Senator Records/distributed by K7/RED Distribution.
In December 2009 the great jazz impresario Larry Rosen presented an historic concert at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center. Jazz luminaries such as Gary Burton, Patti Austin, Arturo Sandoval, Jon Secada, Nestor Torres and of course, Sammy Figueroa joined the Henry Mancini Orchestra to pay tribute and make music with the great composer/arranger Dave Grusin. This fantastic concert was recorded and made into a CD produced by Phil Ramone, an iPad App and a great concert DVD which has already been broadcast on Miami's PBS-TV Channel 2. Watch out for more broadcasts throughout the USA in Fall 2011. This is a truly exciting jazz event, well-produced and featuring some pretty spectacular playing by Sammy.
Since early 2010 Sammy has had the great honor of playing in the band of the great jazz master Sonny Rollins. This has been a great experience creatively and personally. Despite his age, Sonny is as creative and dynamic as ever and together with bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer Kobie Watkins and guitarists Russell Malone and Peter Bernstein the band has already played numerous festivals including North Sea, Vienne, Barcelona, New Orleans Jazzfest, Copenhage, Melbourne and Gent, plus venues such as the Sydney Opera House, NJPAC and concerts in Osaka, Sapporo and Tokyo. This year some of the venues they will be playing are Monterrey Jazz, the Kennedy Center in DC, Istanbul, Warsaw and the Olympia Theatre in Paris. The reception has been rock and roll-like throughout: "It's great to play for audiences that appreciate the music so much, that really listen" said Sammy.
Every year the Miami New Times releases its 'Best Of Miami' issue, which advises its readers on everything from the 'Best Happy Hour' to the 'Best Art Gallery'. In former years Sammy has twice been declared as 'Best Percussionist' but this year Sammy has been declared as the altogether "Best Jazz Musician" in town.
Sammy Figueroa flew to New York on May 10th to spend a week in the studio with the noted jazz record producer Bob Belden, working on an album entitled Miles Espanol, a tribute to the famed trumpet-player, with whom Sammy recorded and performed for several years. The album, which shall be released on E-1 Entertainment (Koch), was recorded in very much the same way as Miles' albums with Teo Macero: with an open-ended sense of time and groove, the music flowing between the players. Other players on this album include Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette, Alex Acuna, Paquito D'Rivera, Jerry Gonzales, Christina Pati, Jorge Pardo, Carlos Benavent and Jaco Abel.
When WDNA asked Sammy Figueroa to shift his time slot from the Friday afternoon Latin Jazz Quarter to only an hour on Monday mornings at 11, Sammy felt a little bit like he was being sent to the back of the class. The only consolation was that he didn't have to stick to the Latin jazz format anymore but could play any style of music he loved from his vast collection and knowledge of multi-genres. Imagine his surprise when told that his show has shot up in ratings faster than any other show in the history of the station and is still going strong. Tune in to this unique radio experience every Monday from 11 AM to 12 noon, EST on South Florida's 88.9 FM or streaming live on the web on www.wdna.org.
Sammy Figueroa has signed an endorsement agreement with New Brunswick-based Sabian Cymbals, one of the world's premier cymbal companies. Sabian, whose company slogan is "Because Sound Matters", endorses many prominent drummers and percussionists, such as Jimmy Cobb, Bobby Sanabria, John Santos and Dave Weckl. Sammy is particularly enamoured of Sabian's Effeks Cymbal, which can be played by stick or hand.
On March 13th 2010 Sammy Figueroa and his band, the Latin Jazz Explosion, appeared at one of Europe's most distinguished and venerable jazz festivals. The band performed in an expanded version, with four extra horn players and a singer. The great baritone sax player Ronnie Cuber and fabulous trumpet player Lew Soloff joined Australian sax player Troy Roberts and trombonist Marshall Gilkes to expand the band's sound into a truly exciting, dynamic wall of sound. The band was joined by jazz super-singer Dana Paul and the entire performance was broadcast live throughout Germany on Bavarian Radio and Television.