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SATURDAY, 15 NOVEMBER, 9:30 PM
Danilo Pérez WITH Bohuslän Big Band
Ages 6 and up
Event
The 34th edition of Guimarães Jazz concludes with the long-awaited return of Danilo Pérez to this stage, where he performed in 2003 with his trio and, in 2006, as part of Wayne Shorter’s Footprints Quartet—one of the most memorable concerts in the festival’s history, according to many. In 2025, Pérez, one of the leading pianists in contemporary music, will perform accompanied by a historic Swedish big band, presenting a retrospective of a multifaceted body of work characterized by the fusion of jazz with Latin and African folk-rooted music, which over time has come to assume a historic dimension.
Born in Panama in 1966, Danilo Pérez grew up in a family connected to music—his father was a well-known singer on the local scene—and began learning piano at the age of three. After a formative period that included classical music studies at the National Conservatory of Panama, Pérez emigrated to the United States to deepen his jazz knowledge, attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated in composition and had the opportunity to play with musicians such as Terence Blanchard and Claudio Roditi.
Once he completed his studies, Pérez immediately entered the jazz circuit, collaborating live and in the studio with some of the biggest names in the music (Jack DeJohnette, Steve Lacy, Michael Brecker, among many others). In 1989, he became a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra, an experience the pianist considers decisive creatively and in his understanding of jazz, as it was the legendary trumpeter who encouraged him to explore the personal and cultural roots of his music.
From the 1990s onward, Pérez shifted his path to focus on his compositional work and leadership of ensembles, releasing his first solo album in 1993. The following year, he presented to the public what is considered one of his most personal works, The Journey, in which the composer for the first time explores Pan-African musical influences. The album earned him his first critical acclaim in the jazz community.
Since then, Pérez has maintained a steady output of projects in various formats, always accompanied by prominent instrumentalists and vocalists of contemporary jazz (Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Regina Carter, Cassandra Wilson, Ben Street, among many others), while continuing to collaborate on projects by other musicians such as David Sanchez, Gary Burton, and Wynton Marsalis.
Beyond his strictly musical activities, it is worth noting that Danilo Pérez is also a co-founder of the Panama Jazz Festival, an initiative exemplifying the social and educational vision of music promoted by the Panamanian pianist.