BRATTLEBORO — Ray Vega and his Latin Jazz Quintet are set to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m.
Vega, one of the world's foremost Latin-jazz trumpeters, is an alumnus of the legendary Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría, Mario Bauzá, Ray Barretto, and Tito Puente ensembles, and is a three-time Grammy Award winner.
Appearing with Vega at the VJC are Zaccai Curtis on piano, Andy Eulau on bass, Diego López on drums, and Chembo Corniel on congas.
Vega, also a senior lecturer in jazz studies at the University of Vermont, is in high demand as a guest artist, motivating young people in high school and college music programs. He grew up in the South Bronx where he found that having a strong musical identity gave him the self-confidence and respect to rise above the fray.
Vega (www.rayvegamusic.com) has conducted master classes in trumpet performance, jazz improvisation, brass performance techniques and Afro-Caribbean jazz at schools such as the Manhattan School of Music, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Music Advancement Program at the Juilliard School, The New School, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Notre Dame University, Louaize (Lebanon).
He has also served as Artist in Residence for the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, is Antoine Courtois-Paris company's trumpet artist, and is on Origin Records.