Home » Jazz Musicians » Javier Red

Javier Red

Javier was born and raised in Mexico City, and in 2015 he moved to Chicago. Although he has had key musical mentors in his career, Javier is mainly self-taught. He believes that music inspires, connects people with themselves or with each other, and is a never-ending journey of self-discovery, exploration, challenges, creativity, and growth. ​ ​In 2001 he founds -together with Jose Gurria (L.A. Gurrisonic Orchestra)- Ethos Trio, with whom they were enrolled in several international performances, such as the International Festival Meet in Beijing in China, and the Washington Kennedy Center Celebrating Mexico among others. They also frequently had Michael Caldwell (California State University senior faculty fellow) as a special guest with whom they performed in Mexico and USA.​ ​He was part of Papabetos; Mexican Big Band, with featured invited artists such as Kiyoshi Kitagawa in the bass. ​

In 2006 he met Matt Davis (NY based Guitar player & Manhattan School of Music guitar faculty member). They started creating and presenting their music in New York, Philadelphia and Mexico City, recording a Duo Album En Nuestros Viajes, which was ranked as one of the best 2011 Albums by Tome to the Weather Machine.​ ​He has played in some of the most important venues in Mexico, such as Palacio de Bellas Artes and CENART, as well as important venues around the world such as Beijing Haidan Centre, Washington Kennedy Center, and Notre Dame University DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.​ He has been invited for multiple festivals such as Eurojazz, Festival Cervantino, Havana-Cuba Jazz Festival, and Lima Jazz Festival among others. His Chicago-based band Imagery converter has performed in several Chicago and Midwest Jazz venues, been very well received. In 2019 they will release their first album Ephemeral Certainties with the iconic Chicago label Delmark.​

Tags

4
Album Review

Javier Red: Life & Umbrella

Read "Life & Umbrella" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


The secret behind Life & Umbrella is that Chicago-based, Mexican-born pianist/composer Javier Red is a studied composer who puts a great deal of thought into the music he presents, both to his peers and to the world. But that music never feels calculated like an equation with an obvious answer. Just the exact opposite. So it is with wiry, creative glee that Red and his Imagery Converter--drummer Gustavo Cortiñas, bassist Ben Dillinger and saxophonist Jake Wark--double down on their bold ...

4
Album Review

Javier Red's Imagery Converter: Life & Umbrella

Read "Life & Umbrella" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Chicago pianist Javier Red and his quartet, Imagery Converter, follow their stimulating debut Ephemeral Certainties (Delmark, 2019) with the equally superb Life & Umbrella. Red dedicates the current release to spreading love and understanding for individuals with autism. The dozen originals which comprise it do not have traditional starting and ending heads, as concepts flow from one to the other. This gives the album its uniqueness and contributes to its thematic unity. The angular “Brain Check" starts off ...

14
Album Review

Javier Red's Imagery Converter: Ephemeral Certainties

Read "Ephemeral Certainties" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Pianist Javier Red hails from Mexico, but since 2015 he's been part of the ever-dynamic Chicago jazz scene, enabling him to team up with three other Windy City-based colleagues on Ephemeral Certainties, the debut disc from a band he calls Imagery Converter. With a shared commitment to finding purpose through diverse melodic fragments and disparate rhythmic figures, the group plays with disciplined energy and a respect for the unexpected, always leaving room for new directions to emerge within these eight ...

Read more articles
Outstanding Musician… ​ (Antonio Malacara, La Jornada Mexico)​ ​ Awesome soloing skills… ​ (Crawford Phileo, Tome to the Weather Machine, US) ​ ​ Full sound….​ (Mark Sullivan All About Jazz, US) ​
Steve Coleman
saxophone, alto

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Life & Umbrella

Desafio Candente
2023

buy

Desafío Candente

Woolgathering Records
2021

buy

Ephemeral Certainties

Delmark Records
2019

buy

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.