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Steve Berrios

Steve Berrios is considered by his peers to be one of the top Latin Jazz drummers on the scene. He has recorded and toured with Max Roach and M'Boom, Mongo Santamaria, Randy Weston, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera, Michael Brecker, Grover Washington Jr., Ray Barretto, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Hilton Ruiz, Leon Thomas, Miriam Makeba, Celia Cruz, Nancy Wilson and Kathleen Battle just to name a few. Steve has appeared and participated in film soundtracks such as, "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Mo' Better Blues", "Jungle Fever", Latin Rhytyms Applied to the Drumset", "Calle 54", and "El Cantante." His second CD, "And Then Some" on Milestone Records was nominated for a Grammy in 1996.

Steve was born in Manhattan in 1945. In the mid 1920's his parents imigrated from Puerto Rico. His father, Steve Sr., was a drummer with the major Latin bands of the era, including Marcelino Guerra, Noro Morales, Miguelito Valdez and Pupi Campo.

Steve was given a bugle on his 10th birthday and he began private trumpet lessons. Steve was selected to join the elite school bands and remained a top member throughout his junior and high school years. During this period, Steve won several competitions playing trumpet at the legendary Apollo Theater's Wednesday Amateur Night. But his real musical education came from listening to his parent’s diverse record collection (which included the likes of Duke Ellington, Trio Los Panchos, Diz and Bird, Rafael Cortijo y Isamael Rivera, Billie Holiday, Machito, Frank Sinatra, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, Ramito y La Calandria, Count Basie, Davilita, Nat King Cole and so on). In addition, exposure to renown musicians who came to hang with his parents completed the circle. His two greatest early influences were Willie Bobo, bilingual percussionist, and Julio Collazo, the legendary master of the batá sacred drums. At age 19, he got his first steady gig as house drummer with a hotel band in Manhattan upon his father’s recommendation. Shortly after he joined Mongo Santamaria’s band playing both traps and timbales from the late '60s till 1980. During his tenure with Mongo, Julio became Steve's mentor spiritually and musically.

In 1981, he became a founding member of the Fort Apache Band. Great drummers like Max Roach and Billy Hart regard Steve as the master of bridging the Latin and the jazz tradition, a unique drummer who’s completely bilingual.

Because of his mastery, Steve is now a veteran of more than 300 recordings.

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Joe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

Read "Joe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola" reviewed by John Kelman


It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...

1,086
Interview

Steve Berrios: Latin Jazz Innovator

Read "Steve Berrios: Latin Jazz Innovator" reviewed by Mark Merella


Steve Berrios is an innovative drummer/percussionist well-known to aficionados of Latin jazz. His groundbreaking work with Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, numerous sessions as a sideman, as well as his two solo albums--First World (Milestone, 1995) and the Grammy-nominated And Then Some (Milestone, 1996)--show a body of work that is a unique amalgam of hard bop, Latin jazz and Afro-Caribbean folkloric rhythms.Berrios's first high profile gig was playing with Mongo Santamaria in the late 1960s, and ...

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Interview

Percussionist Steve Berrios Interviewed at AAJ

Percussionist Steve Berrios Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Steve Berrios is an innovative drummer/percussionist well-known to aficionados of Latin jazz. His groundbreaking work with Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, numerous sessions as a sideman, as well as his two solo albums - First World (Milestone, 1995) and the Grammy-nominated And Then Some (Milestone, 1995) - show a body of work that is a unique amalgam of hard bop, Latin jazz and Afro-Caribbean folkloric rhythms.

With a swing feel as greasy as Elvin Jones, a vast knowledge ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Moving Pictures...

Savant Records
2012

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Rumba Buhaina

Random Chance Records
2005

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First World

hat ART
1995

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