Three-time Grammy Award Winner Oscar Hernández has long been considered one of the most gifted and prominent pianist/ arrangers on the contemporary Latin, Latin-jazz and salsa music scene. Oscar Hernandez is the leader of the world renowned “Spanish Harlem Orchestra”. With their five CD’s to date, Oscar and SHO as they are commonly known, were nominated for a Grammy on their first CD “Un Gran Dia En El Barrio”, won the Grammy for their second CD release,” Across 110th Street” and nominated for their third CD “United We Swing”, and winning yet another Grammy with their 4th CD “Viva La Tradicion”Their latest is self tittled just “Spanish Harlem Orchestra featuring jazz greats Chick Corea & Joe Lovano as special guests. Oscar is the leader, music producer as well as pianist/arranger on all CD’s. Since the band’s inception in the year 2001, SHO have garnered numerous awards and world acclaim as one of the finest exponents of Salsa and Latin/Jazz music. Spanish Harlem Orchestra is generally considered one of the best Salsa orchestras today and one of the finest music ensembles in the world. Oscar’s career as a professional began in the 70’s performing and recording with such seminal artists as Ismael Miranda ,Ray Barreto, Celia Cruz, Conjunto Libre, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez & Grupo Folklorico. Oscar was responsible for charting the musical course of the Rubén Blades Band. “Seis Del Solar”. Increasingly in demand as a pianist, arranger and producer, the Bronx native has produced such artists as Ruben Blades, Paul Simon, Willie Colón “Carabali”, Daniel Ponce, Rafael Dejesus, Eddie Torres, Phil Hernandez, Steve Kroon, Juan Luis Guerra, etc. and than made a more personal statement with the debut CD’s “Decision” and “Alternate Roots” by his band Seis Del Solar the Rubén Blades Band sans Rubén, and now with his 2X Grammy Award winning band “The Spanish Harlem Orchestra”. In addition to being Rubén Blades pianist, arranger and musical director, Oscar Hernández has enjoyed a prolific musical career recording and performing with such world renown artists as Latin music king Tito Puente, Queen of Salsa Music Celia Cruz, Latin Pop Star Julio Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra, Ray Barreto, Earl Klugh, Dave Valentin, Johnny Pacheco, Ismael Miranda, Pete”Conde” Rodríquez, Oscar De’leon, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, “Libre’ “Grupo Folkorico Experimental”, Willie Colón, Kirsty MacColl, etc…..Oscar’s musical exploits include working as Musical Director/Conductor, arranging and producing the music for “The Capeman,” pop-rock icon Paul Simon’s Broadway musical. In addition, Oscar is also the music producer of “The Capeman” cast recording. Oscar was Musical Director/Arranger for the hit shows “Quien Mato A Hector Lavoe” and “La Lupe” at the 47th Street Theatre. He was also, Music Supervisor/Arranger for the show “Four Guys named Jose & Una Mujer named Maria”. In addition to having firmly established his reputation as an excellent musician and producer/arranger, Oscar has composed music for film having scored the music for the film documentaries, “If The Mango Tree Could Speak” by Pat Goudvis &”Angela Tiene Un Bebé” by Paula Heredia, HBO’s “Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story” and Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories by Pam Sporn. In addition to leading New York’s Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Oscar also leads an All Star Salsa Orchestra in Los Angeles and performs with his Latin Jazz Quintet. “Alma Libre” His new quintet CD titled “The Art of Latin Jazz will be released on Origin Records in March 2017. As a musical director/arranger, he is in demand by many of today’s top Latino artists. Most recently , Oscar is responsible for the orchestrations & arrangements of the new hit Broadway Musical by Gloria Estefan, “On Your Feet”.

"Playing music is a life long commitment. There are always new things to consider and develop. I'm exhilarated and humbled by music on a daily basis, and plan to continue on this path until my last day on earth." These words pretty much sums up Bob Mintzer's approach to music.   Bob leads several musical lives that, at times, seem humanly impossible for one person to sustain. He is a 20 year member of the Grammy award winning Yellowjackets, leads his own Grammy winning big band, is the recipient of the Buzz McCoy endowed chair of jazz studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, does workshops all over the world, writes books on jazz, writes for orchestra, concert band, andbig band, travels with his own quartet, and plays with numerous other bands around the globe. He is equally active in the composing, performing and educational fields.   Bob has written over 200 big band arrangements. His big band music is played over the world, and has influenced numerous big band writers. He honed his big band writing and playing skills in the bands of Tito Puente, Buddy Rich, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis. He has also written works for the National Symphony Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands. WDR Big band in Cologne, HR Big Band in Frankfurt and was commissioned to write a piece for concert band and tenor sax (Go) by a consortium of 50 universities.   As an instrumentalist Bob has worked with Art Blakey, Jaco Pastorius, Sam Jones, Randy Brecker, Gil Evans, the Yellowjackets, GRP All Star Big Band, Mike Manieri, The New York Philharmonic, to name a few. He has done session work for James Taylor, Steve Winwood, Queen, Donald Fagan, Milton Nascimento, and countless others. Bob has recorded some 30 solo projects and was awarded with 4 grammy nominations and a Grammy award for best large jazz ensemble recording in 2001 for Homage to Count Basie on the DMP label. Bob currently resides in Los Angeles in the former house of composer Arnold Schoenberg (his first LA residence, 1934-1936), teaches at USC, travels 4 months out of the year, and, when at home, writes and practices constantly. He is generally considered one of the tenor saxophonists who came out the school of New York players in the 70's, which includes Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, David Liebman and Steve Grossman.

Jimmy Branly grew up in Cuba, where he studied at the Conservatory of Music in Havana and at the National School of Art. After working with the famous Afro-Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and the influential timba group NG la Banda, in 1998, at the age of twenty-two, he moved to southern California, where he began playing with Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen. Now married with two children, the drummer packs a lot of music into each day, including work with the Otmaro Ruiz Quartet, bassist Jimmy Haslip, famed keyboardists Keiko Matsui, David Garfield, and Oscar Hernández, and singer/pianist Carol Welsman, with whom he’s been playing for more than fifteen years. He’s also excited about a new Cuban-jazz trio featuring pianist Iván “Melón” Lewis and Chick Corea bassist Carlitos Del Puerto.     After writing the well-regarded book The New Method for Afro-Cuban Drumming for Hudson Music in 2004, Branly, who holds a doctorate in music, began teaching at Shepherd University in Glendale, California. For the past eight years he’s taught drums and Afro-Cuban group performances at the university’s Cornel School of Contemporary Music. Jimmy is currently working on his debut solo album, and he regularly engineers projects for other artists out of his home recording studio, where he’s produced, mixed, and/or mastered more than eighty albums encompassing a wide variety of styles. MDrecently spent some time with the busy drummer to get to the heart of his cross-cultural musical identity. - Bio by Robin Tolleson ("Modern Drummer")

Band leader and clarinetist best known as the leader of the influential Mexican group La Arrolladora Banda El Limón. He and the band are famous for their fusion of traditional Mexican musical styles, as heard on chart-topping albums like Más Adelante (2009).

Conguero Christian Moraga was born in in Santiago, Chile and by the age of sixteen he lived in Illinois for a year. There he had a very strict drum professor who got him seriuosly into music. After that Christian Moraga started playing professionally back in Chile.  He wanted to know about afrocuban percussion and started traveling to Cuba to have lessons with master percussionist 'Changuito' and some other percussionist with a folkloric background. Christian Moraga also attended to the Harbor Conservatory of the Performing Arts in New York and he went to Peru to learn afroperuvian percussion.  In Chile Christian Moraga played for 10 years with a Rock-Funk band called Chancho en Piedra, and for a shorter period of time with on the same genre with Los Tetas.  He also played with latin jazz bands such as Causeo Especial and La Pedroband, jazz big bands such as Los Andes Big Band, salsa bands Manuel Ramirez y los Durissimos de Chile and Daniel Lavalle & La Tribu del Saoco, and acid jazz band called Alluzinatti and soul music with Raiza and Panama Red.  Noweadays Christian Moraga lives in Los Angeles, California after moving from Miami not too long ago. He has performed with Nestor Torres, Kevin Ceballos, Oscar Cartaya, Fruko y sus Tesos, Banda Brothers, Jimmy Bosh, Tito Nieves, Johnny Polanco y su Conjunto Amistad, the Francisco Aguabella Memorial Latin Jazz Ensemble (featuring Jorge Carbonell on drums) and some others.