ROBERTO JUAN RODRIGUEZ WITH DAVID KRAKAUER

Roberto Rodriguez – percussionist
David Krakauer – clarinet
Marcus Rojas – tuba
Mary Wooten – cello
Meg Okura – violin
Ted Reichman – accordion
Bernie Minoso – bass

This band creates a new genre in the world musical stage, mixing Klesmer with Cuban sound and downtown jazz.

R.H. Rodriguez was born in Cuba where he studied violin, piano and trumpet at the Cuban Musical Conservatorium. He began playing bass when he was 11. He attended a Miami University for which he had been granted a full scholarship. He performed with many prominent musicians. His father Roberto Luis Rodriguez, a trumpet player, score-writer and a teacher, was Robert’s main mentor.

He is a winner of the American Musical Reward (1989) and Grammy (with Miami Sound Machine in 1991).

David Krakauer is one of the leading world representatives of Eastern European Jewish Klesmer music, being extremely popular in the USA and the world, as well as a leading clarinet player of classic music. He has an extraordinary virtuosity, imagination and the gift to generate a fascinating clarinet sound.

T. Reichman performs new music, jazz, rock, and traditional Jewish and Balkan music. He is a member of the Klesmer Madness ensemble and is the founder of the “New Music Series” programme in a New York Tonic Club.

Bernie Minoso was born on 22 July 1963 in New York, studied the trombone, and then began playing bass. He has got college education in music. Minoso had been living his dream when summoned by the pianist and score-writer Oscar Hernandes to play the bass line in Paul Simon’s first Broadway musical play “The Chapmen”, staged in January 1998. He played Latino, jazz, rock, R&B and reggae with various bands in New York. Within the past four years he has been a member of the Tito Puentes Orchestra.

Mary Wooten is famous for her versatility and improvisation. She has performed in concert halls, avant-garde clubs and jazz festivals.

Meg Okura is a violin player , a composer and an improviser. She performs her extraordinary compositions using improvising idioms of jazz and classical music. She has studied at the Julliard School in New York. She has lately participated in several concerts in Japan and the USA, as a solo player and as a director. She is a member of the Vince Giordano Nighthawks, Pharaoh’s Daughter, the Sirius Quartet and is the assistant to the orchestra leader of the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra.