Ignacio Berroa

Best known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie, Afro-Cuban and jazz drummer Ignacio Berroa was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1953. Though he originally studied classical violin, after he heard Nat King Cole and Glenn Miller he knew that he wanted to take a different route. He began drum lessons at 11, and by 1970 was performing professionally in Cuba. In 1980 Berroa moved to New York. By the next year, Dizzy Gillespie had invited him to join his quartet, and he spent the next ten years playing in the trumpeter’s various groups. Equally adept in jazz and Latin percussion, Berroa recorded and performed with artists like Tito Puente, Charlie Haden, Chico Buarque, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chick Corea, and João Bosco, and released his first solo album, Codes, in 2006. ~ Marisa Brown