Biography

Trumpeter Juan Cruz de Urquiza was born in Buenos Aires in 1965. He has played with Arnie Lawrence, Paquito D’Rivera, Chucho Valdés, Fred Hersch’s quintet, Johnny Coles, Mike Longo, Marc Copland, Claudio Roditi, Conrad Herwig, Osvaldo Fattoruso, and local musicians such as Luis Salinas, Horacio Larumbe, Jorge Navarro, Baby López Furst, among many others. He has been a session musician for 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, Rubén Rada, Los Pericos, Illia Kuryaki & The Valderramas, among others. He has recorded with Guillermo Klein’s The Big Van and Los Guachos, Conrad Herwig, Quinteto Urbano, Mariano Otero Orquesta, Javier Malosetti and Arida Conta Group. He has been recognized with the Berklee College of Music Award in Argentina (1989), the Boston Jazz Society Achievement Award (1992) and the Clark Terry Award (1993). He was voted Trumpeter of the Year by La Nación newspaper in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2008, and received two Clarín awards (Best New Jazz Artist and Outstanding Jazz Artist, 2003 and 2008, respectively). He participated in the project Mundos and recorded with Jordy Rossi, Perico Sambeat and Javier Colina for the Verve label. De este lado, Vigilia (S’Jazz), Trías (PAI) are his two albums as a leader. He recorded Strange Fruit in collaboration with Ligia Piro.