Bobby Sanabria

Bobby Sanabria (born June 2, 1957) is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, documentary producer, educator, activist, radio show host, and writer of Puerto Rican descent who specializes in jazz and Latin jazz.

Sanabria was born in the South Bronx in New York City on June 2, 1957, of Puerto Rican descent.

The Wall Street Journal reviewer Will Friedwald wrote, "There's every reason to hope that Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story will improve upon the 1961 film, but I doubt if we'll ever hear a more thrilling interpretation of that immortal score than that of the Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band."

Known as a drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, conductor, documentary film producer, educator, activist, and bandleader, his versatility as both a drummer and percussionist, from small group to big band, has become legendary.

A native son of the South Bronx born to Puerto Rican parents, he has performed and recorded with every major figure in the world of Latin jazz and salsa, from the founder of the Afro-Cuban/Latin jazz movement Mario Bauzá, to Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Dizzy Gillespie, Chico O'Farrill, Ray Barretto, Candido, to Larry Harlow, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, and jazz luminaries as diverse as Henry Threadgill, Charles McPherson, Randy Brecker, Joe Chambers, Jean Lucien, The Mills Brothers, and others.

DRUM!

He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1979 with his Bachelor of Music degree in both jazz drum set and classical percussion, minoring in arranging and composition receiving the Faculty Association Award for his excellence as a player and student.

He has appeared over the years all over the world teaching about and performing Latin jazz.

He has written articles for Modern Drummer, DRUM, Downbeat, Traps, and is a regular contributor to the WBGO website and written liner notes for over 50 CD releases.

He has been featured in Downbeat, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Modern Drummer, Drum, Percussion, NPR, and NPR Latino USA.

His albums Afro-Cuban Dream: Live and in Clave, Big Band Urban Folktales, Multiverse, West Side Story Reimagined, and Vox Humana have all been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Other documentaries he has been featured in on screen and acted as a consultant, producer are, The Palladium: Where Mambo Was King (2003), Latin Music U.S.A. (2006), We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo (2015), and Let's Get The Rhythm 2016). In 2019 he was named Godfather/Padrino of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center and the Bronx Music Hall. His lifetime dedication to spreading the history, culture, of jazz and Latin jazz to the general public as a performer, as well as educating a new generation of players, composers, arrangers, has no parallel. A member of Max Roach's legendary M'BOOM percussion ensemble, he is on the faculty of the New School (his 28th year) and NYU and was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music for 20 years. He is also the on air host of the Latin Jazz Cruise on WBGO FM and wbgo.org, the number one jazz station in the nation where he also is a frequently featured writer on the website.

Maestro Sanabria has been recently honored by Lehman College by being bestowed an Honorary Doctorate in Music.

He endorses TAMA drums, Sabian cymbals, Latin Percussion Inc. instruments, Remo drum heads, and Vic Firth sticks and mallets

TAMA Drums,

Sabian Cymbals,

Latin Percussion Inc.,

Remo Drumheads,

Vic Firth Sticks

Magazine named him Percussionist of the Year (2005); he was named Percussionist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2011 and 2013.

In 2006, he was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

Mr. Sanabria has composed the music for several award winning, critically acclaimed documentaries - From Mambo to Hip Hip: A South Bronx Tale (2006) where he was also a producer, consultant and on air personality, Some Girls (2017), and La Madrina: The Savage Life of Loraine Padilla (2020).

In 2008 Congressman Dennis Kucinich honored his work as a musician and educator by reading his name into the Congressional Record and in 2018 the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus honored him as a musician, educator.

Every single one of his big band recordings, seven in total, have been nominated for Grammys.

He was a recipient of the 2018 Jazz Education Network (JEN) LeJENS of Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a musician and educator.

His 2018 recording, West Side Story Reimagined, reached #1 on the national Jazz Week radio charts, was nominated for a 2018 Grammy, and won the prestigious 2019 Record of The Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association.

Partial proceeds from sales of this double CD set go to the Jazz Foundation of America's Puerto Rico Relief Fund for musicians.

West Side Story Reimagined also won the Jazz Journalists Award for Best Jazz Album of 2019.

They have been critically praised for their forward thinking vision in expanding the boundaries of the Latin jazz big band tradition.

His current release with his Multiverse Big Band, Vox Humana, has just been nominated for a 2024 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz recording.

(Mr. Sanabria) expands the possibilities, moving the sounds of bands like that of (Puente, Machito), with all the heft and intricacy and clave-based dance rhythm, into the harmonically oriented sophistication of current New York jazz players.

It's New York up and down, and back and forth across the last century, from the streets to the mambo palaces to the conservatories.

– Ben Ratliff, The New York Times