Biography Wikipedia
from Wikipedia:
Dafnis Prieto (born July 31, 1974) is a Cuban Drummer, Composer and Educator. He is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.
Life
Born in Santa Clara, Cuba. "His arrival in the U.S. has been compared by to that of an asteroid hitting New York." Indeed, within a short period of time Dafnis Prieto's revolutionary drumming techniques had a powerful impact on the Latin and Jazz music scene, locally and internationally.
He was voted "Up & Coming Musician of the Year", by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2006, and nominated for a Grammy Award for "Absolute Quintet" as Best Latin Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy for "Best New Artist" in 2007. He is an educator, and has conducted numerous master classes, clinics, and workshops. Since 2005, he has been a member of the NYU Music Faculty.
A resident of New York since only 1999, he has already played in bands led by Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O'Farrill, Dave Samuels & The Caribbean Jazz Project, Jane Bunnett, D.D. Jackson, Edward Simon, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Claudia Acuña, Roy Hargrove, Don Byron, and Andrew Hill among others. He has performed at many national and international music festivals as a sideman and as bandleader including various of his own project and music.
As a composer, he has created music for dance, film, chamber ensembles, and most notably for his own bands, ranging from duets to his “Small Big Band” and including the distinctively different groups featured on his four acclaimed recordings as a leader About The Monks, Absolute Quintet, Taking the Soul for a Walk, Si o Si Quartet Live at Jazz Standard. He has also received new works commissions, grants, and fellowships from Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, East Carolina University, and Meet the Composer.
Dafnis Prieto endorses: Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Latin Percussion, Evans drum heads and Vic Firth sticks.
