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Martin Bejerano

Martin Bejerano, a native of Miami, Florida, has been active as a professional musician since the age of fifteen, when he began his performance career playing George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" concerto with the Mexican-American Bi-National Symphony while still in high school. A graduate of the esteemed New World School of the Art, he received a full scholarship to attend Florida State University, where he studied classical piano with Leonidas Lipovetsky, and jazz piano, composition, and arranging with Bill Peterson, whom he cites as one of his most important influences. He then went on to receive a Master’s degree from the University of Miami, also under full scholarship. During this time, Martin won third place in the nation in the prestigious 1999 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, was chosen to attend the famed Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Colony, and had several compositions published in Ignacio Berroa's "Groovin' in Clave" instructional drum book.

In the summer of 2000, Bejerano decided a move to New York City was in order to further develop his career. The move turned out to be a good one, and, in less than a year, he was asked to join the quartet of legendary jazz drummer and Grammy award-winning artist Roy Haynes. The group has since gone on to perform across the world to high critical praise and accolades. The 2004 recording, Fountain of Youth, was nominated for a 2004 Grammy award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album—Martin’s first recording on a major label. In January 2002, Martin also joined internationally acclaimed guitarist Russell Malone’s quartet, contributing to Malone's last three recordings on MAXJAZZ, Playground (2004), Live At Jazz Standard Volume One (2006), and Live At Jazz Standard Volume Two (2007). Bejerano continues to tour and record with both these groups.

Martin continually astonishes audiences across the world, employing a serious technical command of the piano, a highly modern harmonic and rhythmic concept, and a commitment to lyricism and musicality, creating a truly expressive approach to improvising. Drawing on a multitude of musical genres, Bejerano has created a unique style that has the inherent quality of always continuing to evolve.

Having performed with esteemed artists as Roy Haynes, Russell Malone, Kenny Garrett, James Moody, Lonnie Plaxico, Jimmy Heath, Ignacio Berroa, Mingus Big Band, Marcus Printup, Marcus Strickland, and even trading choruses with the legendary Chick Corea, one can easily gain a sense of Bejerano’s formidable talent on the keyboard. Martin has performed at most of the major jazz festivals, clubs and venues around the world, and is proud to have toured with “Jazz Reach,” a non-profit organization that presents multimedia concerts for school children across the country, educating them on the history of jazz music as an American art form.

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Album Review

Roxana Amed: Unánime

Read "Unánime" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


La relazione tra jazz e musiche latine è quanto mai vasta e risale ai primi del Novecento ma il termine latin jazz è stato generalmente limitato alle relazioni col bacino caraibico, rese popolari dai vari Machito, Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, Chico O'Farrill eccetera. La cantante argentina Roxana Amed è tra quelle personalità musicali impegnate a ridefinire e ampliare ciò che si intende comunemente con questo termine. È un fenomeno ricco di contenuti che cresce nel tempo e ...

Album Review

Martin Bejerano: #CubanAmerican

Read "#CubanAmerican" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


A differenza dei talentuosi pianisti cubani emersi nell'ultimo decennio (ricordiamo ad esempio Dayramir Gonzalez, Fabian Almazan e Alfredo Rodríguez), Martin Bejerano è un po' meno noto al pubblico del jazz, specie in Italia. Dal 2006 guida questo trio col bassista Edward Perez e il batterista Ludwig Afonso (disco del debutto: Evolution/Revolution) ed ha proseguito con altre incisioni, alternandosi alle lunghe scritture nei quartetti di Russell Malone e di Roy Haynes. Altre collaborazioni del pianista sono state con Christian McBride, Dave ...

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Roxana Amed: Ontology

Read "Ontology" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Per il titolo del suo settimo album Roxana Amed ha scelto un termine filosoficamente pregnante, la cui analisi risale ai presocratici. Ovviamente la cantante non s'interroga sull'essere in quanto essere ma restringe il campo alla sua dimensione personale, al suo essere cantante di jazz argentina, con un'identità in equilibrio tra due mondi. «Mi ci è voluto un po' di tempo per trovare la parola che potesse riflettere questo viaggio—ha detto Roxana -che potesse tradurre anni di domande, rivelazioni, ...

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South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...

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Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...

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Album Review

Martin Bejerano: Trio Miami

Read "Trio Miami" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While nobody could successfully argue that the cost of playing with jazz legend Roy Haynes outweighs the benefits--a wealth of experience and time to connect with one of this music's greatest figures, tremendous exposure and opportunity on the performance front, time to build a group dynamic with one of the few true working bands out there, the incentives that often come with top-tier bookings--there is still a small price to be paid. For pianist Martin Bejerano (and his fellow travelers ...

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Album Review

Martin Bejerano: Evolution/Revolution

Read "Evolution/Revolution" reviewed by Francis Lo Kee


Time will tell, but this may be one of those debut CDs that people will talk about for decades, one where people ask, “Do you remember when you first heard...? While the opening “Blues Evolution displays enough amazing piano chops to send the most accomplished musicians back to the woodshed, what this recording has is a direct and honest approach to melodic jazz improvisation. That clearly evident aesthetic places it right away on a higher level than 95% of new ...

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Credentials/Background

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

#CubanAmerican

Self Produced
2022

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Unánime

Sony Music
2022

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Ontology

Sony Music
2021

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Brother John

The Tam Tam Group
2020

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The Falling Out

The Tam Tam Group
2020

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Cheap Thrills: The...

Summit Records
2020

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