About Yasek Manzano

Yasek Manzano is the perhaps most outstanding trumpet player of the younger generation in Cuba . Born in 1980, he starts his career at the age of 11 and he studied music at the prestigious Havana School of Arts and Music. Wynton Marsalis made a trip to Havana and invited him to attend a scholarship at the Julliard School of Music. In 1997 Roy Hargrove gave him a trumpet and they played together in 1998 in various jam sessions in New York . Yasek, who is inspired by Clifford Brown, Roy Eldridge and Bobby Carcasès has shared the stage with Celia Cruz, Los Van Van, Irakere, and many more. He plays trumpet both with skills of a master and heart felt energy of his youth.

“Manzano for his part is already in the major leagues. The former Julliard Conservatory student is quickly becoming one of the young titans on the horizon. I had the good fortune to catch him with the Alexandro Vargas Group in Old Havana May 2006. I was impressed then at his lyrical soloing. Unlike some of his counterparts who play high and fast - Manzano is a deliberate, thoughtful player connected more to Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie than the floor shows”.

Bill King, Ejazznews.com

"Listening to him play the trumpet I realised that in spite of his average height and splendid youth, I found myself in front of an instrumentalist of top stature with a very particular way of interpreting melodies, a great virtuosism and a special talent for expressing dense and beautiful notes, which reassert the high and rich level of today’s contemporary music.

Lesly Sinclair, Revista de Salsa & Jazz “La Conga”

"If trumpet virtuosity has a name in Cuba today, it is Yasek Manzano. Listening to him is like entering another dimension, discovering new sensations. Born in Havana almost a quarter of a century ago, he is a little shy, of medium height and gives a natural smile, needing no words to create the best and most sublime poem (...)"

José L. Road Betancourt, Newspaper Juventud Rebelde

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