Best known for his work with
Dizzy Gillespie, Afro-Cuban and jazz drummer
Ignacio Berroa was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1953. Though he originally studied classical violin, after he heard
Nat King Cole and
Glenn Miller he knew that he wanted to take a different route. He began drum lessons at 11, and by 1970 was performing professionally in Cuba. In 1980
Berroa moved to New York. By the next year,
Dizzy Gillespie had invited him to join his quartet, and he spent the next ten years playing in the trumpeter's various groups. Equally adept in jazz and Latin percussion,
Berroa recorded and performed with artists like
Tito Puente,
Charlie Haden,
Chico Buarque,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba,
Chick Corea, and
João Bosco, and released his first solo album,
Codes, in 2006. ~ Marisa Brown