Biography

Juan Cruz de Urquiza's biography

Juan Cruz de Urquiza was born in Buenos Aires in 1965. He studied music at the Universidad Católica Argentina and later on at the Berklee College of Music de Boston. He has performed with Arnie Lawrence, Paquito D’Rivera, Chucho Valdés (at the Teatro Colón alongside the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra), Johnny Coles, Mike Longo, Marc Copland, Claudio Roditi, Conrad Herwig, Osvaldo Fattoruso and with most of the greatest Argentine jazz musicians. He recorded with Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos and Big Van, Conrad Herwig, Mariano Otero, Javier Malosetti and the Arida Conta Group, which also featured Tom Harrell, David Kikosky and Donny McCaslin, among others. He was granted several awards and special mentions, including the Berklee College of Music Award in Argentina (1989), Boston Jazz Society Achievement (1992), Clark Terry Award (1993), Trumpeter of the Year (Newspaper La Nación) and the Clarín award in 2003 and 2008.
As a sessionist, he recorded and performed with Deep Purple, Sui Generis, Caetano Veloso, Lalo Schifrin, Fito Páez, Joaquín Sabina, Divididos, Andrés Calamaro, Armando Manzanero, Mariano Mores, Olga Guillot, Pedro Aznar, Miguel Cantilo, Los Redonditos de Ricota, Diego Torres, Rubén Rada, Los Piojos, and many others. In January 1996 he was invited by Portuguese pianist Bernardo Sasseti to take part in the project Proyecto Mundos alongside Jordy Rossi, Perico Sambeat and Javier Colina, thereby giving a concert in Lisbon and recording for the label VERVE. In 1999 he co-founded Quinteto Urbano, an ensemble which has released three albums to date. With his own quartet he released Del otro lado in 2005 and Vigilia in 2006 (both under S’JAZZ). In 2007 he joined renowned Spanish pianist Chano Domínguez’s band, touring Mexico, Spain and France.

www.juancruzdeurquiza.com.ar • www.myspace.com/juancruzdeurquiza