Eguie Castrillo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Biography

Growing up in the Cupey section of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Castrillo's first showed hints of musical ability playing a tiny organ in his parents' living room. "I used to play the theme to the movie The Godfather and 'Noche de Paz' ["Silent Night"] on that organ, and it would make my mother cry," Castrillo says. He continues with a laugh, "I wonder now if she was crying because it touched her or because it sounded bad."

Castrillo's parents ultimately diverted his attention from the organ when he was seven years old by giving him a set of timbales for Christmas. "I loved the timbales and would practice for eight hours most days," Castrillo recalls. "Timbales are very loud. When I played at night, the neighbors would call the police. Finally, we all came to an agreement that I would have to stop playing by 8:00 p.m. But by the time that happened, I had become good friends with the police!"

One artist whose music profoundly affected Castrillo early on was the late, great bandleader and percussionist Tito Puente. "After I saw him playing timbales, I knew what I wanted to be a timbalero." At 11, he met Giovanni Hidalgo, who Castrillo believes is one of the best conga players anywhere. The connection helped broaden Castrillo's musical horizons. "I was lucky to grow up around him," Castrillo says. "After we met, I started playing conga and bongos and even a little bit of bata drums." These days, Castrillo is a high demand percussionist and an authority on the rhythms of the Caribbean countries Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Castrillo started playing professionally with several groups in high school. By the time he left Puerto Rico in 1993, he had played with all of the top names in the country. "I felt I had to move to see where my talent would take me," says Castrillo. “A group in New York called, promising me good work as a conguero if I moved there. I had a family and owned a house in Puerto Rico by then, so moving to New York was a big change." In the end, the work never materialized, and Castrillo left New York for Miami, where he was soon hired by Latin-jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.

"The five years I spent playing with Arturo were great.We traveled around the world four times and played with many great musicians, including Michael Brecker, Steve Winwood, and Cachao Lopez." Toward the end of that stint, Castrillo wanted a change. He sought to tour less and spend more time at home with his family. At the urging of Professor Victor Mendoza and others, Castrillo moved to the Boston area and began teaching at Berklee in 1999.

Since his arrival in the area, he has worked with many acts, and very few of them are Latin artists looking for a timbale player. "So many people call me to play congas," he says. "I also get called upon to play all kinds of grooves. You can apply any rhythm to the congas. You can be playing salsa and then change to calypso, or cross over to American music like funk, rock, blues, or whatever. You can also play the traditional rhythms of different Carribean countries like the bomba from Puerto Rico or rhythms from Venezuela. That is the beauty of that instrument."

While Castrillo has made a good living playing congas, his first love remains the timbales. It had been his dream since 1989 to be a timbalero leading a large ensemble playing mambos, cha-chas, and rumbas in a salute to the 1950s Palladium era in New York. "When Tito Puente passed away in 2000, I went to the funeral, stood by his casket, and made a promise that I would try to carry on the tradition he started. I want to bring the mambo back with some new touches."

Castrillo's first outing with the orchestra of his dreams was a Latin Big Band concert at the Berklee Performance Center in November of 2004. "I did a tribute to the Mambo Kings, Tito Puente, Machito, and Tito Rodriguez.” This show received a very warm welcome by the Media and all the public in attendance which prompted Castrillo to work on a mambo CD titled “Palladium Tradition”, released in 2005, and he couldn't be happier. "I am very pleased with the record," he says. "There is a medley of boleros and a rumba from Cuba that I adapted and had José Madera, conguero and arranger for Tito Puente, arrange for us."

While Castrillo feels that Puente left big shoes to fill, he wants to do what he can to keep the music alive. "I want to continue passing on knowledge and stories to my audience for them to do the same thing".

Recently the Orquestra played again at Berklee's Performance Center doing a show called "Latin Meets Jazz" to a Full House, and they also played at Massachusetts new Govenor Deval Patrick's Inuagural Ceremony to an attending audience of 10,0000. The orchestra was the closing act and had the honor to be the only Latin artists to play at this event. Other headline artist's that performed where Yo-Yo Ma, Patti Austin and The Platters.

At present their world tour is being organized and performances in mayor Jazz and Latin Festivals are in the works.

In addition, pre-production for the 2007 CD has begun, which will be produced by Grammy Academy member PJ Gumbe, who has porduced and/or engineered for artists like Batacumble, Lalo Rodriguez, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Gilberto Santarosa, Tito Rojas, Irakere, Freddie Hubbard, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Patato Valdes, Mongo Santamaria, Eddie Gomez, and many more.

Eguie's Tours and Perfomances include:

Tito Puente, Jennifer Lopez, Steve Winwood Paquito D' Rivera, Gloria Estefan, Ruben Blades, Arturo Sandoval, Joaquín Cortez, Dave Valentín, KC & The Sunshine Band, United Nations Orchestra, Michel Camilo, Israel "Cachao" López, Giovanni Hidalgo, Michael Brecker and Celia Cruz.

[edit] Website

• Official Website

[edit] Discography

Selected Discography

• Eguie Castrillo & His Orchestra - Palladium Tradition / Coyeyo Records (USA) / This CD can be purchased at CD Baby [1] and ITunes

• Hot House: Arturo Sandoval / N2K Records (USA)- Grammy Award Winner

• The Latin Train: Arturo Sandoval / GRP Records (USA)

• Perspectiva: Gilberto Santa Rosa / Sony Records (USA)

• The Pérez Family Sound Track / MGM (USA)

• Random Hearts Sound Track (USA)

• Get Down Live!: KC & The Sunshine Band / Intersound International (USA)

• A GRP Celebration of the Songs of the Beatles: GRP / GRP Records (USA)

• Señora Tentación: Lucía Méndez, Sony Latin (USA)

• Home Again with Bob Vila: TV Program (USA)

• Tupay: Forever Music (Bolivia)

• Balada de Otro Tiempo: Roy Brown (LY Records, Puerto Rico)

• The Latin Album: Boston Pop