Jorge Luis Pacheco

30 Nov

Written By Oh! Jazz

Hailing from Havana, Cuba, Jorge Luis Pacheco is one of the leading pianists and musicians of the new generation of jazz in Cuba. Winner of the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in Switzerland , Pacheco is a fiery young pianist with "flying hands."His music is a confluence of Cuban jazz, Cuban and Afro Cuban music, American jazz, and classical music with a measure of contemporary pop and soul.He has performed all over the world including prominent jazz clubs such as Dizzy's Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York), theatres, and festivals such as the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York, or The Piano Night in the House of Blues at the New Orleans Jazz Fest as well as the Sziget Festival in the City of Budapest, Hungary or the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel among others He also performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington several times with his quartet and Solo Piano Concert as well as the legendary Apollo Theatre in where a lifetime achievement award was presented to Herbie Hancock. He has collaborated with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and the JLCO, Arturo O' Farrill and the Legendary Lenny White as well as with Dave Weckt and Richie Goods in trio format ,saxophonist Bill Evans, singer Haley Reinhart, Tommy Campbelland some of the most important Cuban artists such asAlexander Abreu, Isaac Delgado, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Amadito Valdes and Tete Caturla (Buena Vista Social Club) Leo Brouwer, Pablo Milanes, Ruy Lopez Nussa, Javier Salva, Haydee Milanes, Descemer Bueno, Bobby Carcases among others Jorge performed at Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he also gave a Master class. Pacheco is passionate, extravagant, exciting entertainer on stage and constantly captures the audience's attention with his heartfelt performances and electric energy. Pacheco was the winner of the JoJAzz Award in Havanna and also in 2017 Pacheco won the Best Solo and Performance Award in the Jazz Competition "Made in New York" in New York City whit one of his own compositions "Con el Pache me Voy" and some of the most recognized musicians in the world as a jury, it is the case of Randy Brecker, The legend of Lenny White and Mike Stern. Pacheco also has a Master's Degree in Composition from the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana.
He is a virtuoso pianist, composer, arranger, percussionist and singer. Monty Alexander exclaimed that he "defies genre" often playing Cuban jazz, traditional Cuban music, original Film scores, and a new Symphony for Jazz Quartet and Symphony Orquestra that he composed, which is inspired in the music of South America and Afro Cuban Music where Pacheco showed the audience a range of different sounds that were from the most classic performed by the Symphonic Orchestra to the most contemporary by the Jazz Quartet and where both joined to achieve a balance between both musical worlds. In December 2020 Pacheco recorded a new Album titled "The Lockdown Album", where Pacheco search new ways to expand his horizon as a pianist and as a composer. Since classical music has played an important role throughout his career, he decided to bring both worlds together, integrating to his jazz compositions works from Chopin and Beethoven, navigating between these two worlds he loves and mixing the sounds of traditional and modern jazz with his Cuban roots.