Elio Villafranca

Cuban pianist and composer Elio Villafranca is at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable Cuban musicians. At the 2010 Grammy Awards he was nominated in Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year, for his performance, composition, and coproduction for the album Things I Wanted to Do by Chembo Corniel. He has released three well-received albums as a bandleader. His latest, The Source in Between (2007), remained in the top 10 of the JazzWeek World Chart for 11 weeks; his first, Incantations/Encantaciones, was ranked among the 50 best jazz albums of the year by JazzTimes magazine in 2003. In 2008 Villafranca was honored with the BMI Jazz Guaranty Award and received the first NFA/Heineken Green Ribbon Master Artist Music Grant for the creation of his Concerto for Mariachi, for Afro-Cuban Percussion and Symphony Orchestra. He was also pianist on the CD La Guerra No by John Santos Y El Coro Folklórico Kindembo, which was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award. He has worked with Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, Eric Alexander, Jon Faddis, Sonny Fortune, Eddie Henderson, Miguel Zenón, Cándido Camero, and Johnny Pacheco, and has performed at world-renowned venues and events including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium; Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia; and the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, Holland.