‘a dedicated, sophisticated musician’ …. he’s plenty hip, it’s about the hippest Cuban music you’ve ever heard.’
The New York Times
“It’s bright and breezy and well-played throughout…”
JazzUK
It was back in 1986 when a 16 year old Brant Tilds, trumpeter and jazz fanatic, met one of his idols Dizzy Gillespie in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. The young Brant would often be hanging out at local jazz clubs in the hope that he might get a chance to play with some of his favourite jazz musicians, and that particular night he got lucky. Not only did he meet one of his heros in Dizzy Gillespie, Brant also played with Dizzy’s drummer Ignacio Berroa, largely known as the drummer who invented the ‘songo’ rhythm.
It was that meeting with Dizzy Gillespie and subsequent conversations with Brant that sparked a relentless pursuit…
It was that meeting with Dizzy Gillespie and subsequent conversations with Brant that sparked a relentless pursuit for gaining a real understanding of what Dizzy had meant about his approach to playing jazz. Dizzy told Brant that, ‘the feel in jazz, that swing feeling really comes from the güiro (a percussion instrument) used in Cuban music.’ Dizzy Gillespie was one of the early innovators of Afro-Cuban jazz (the earliest form of Latin jazz).
That one conversation inspired Brant to go on a whirlwind tour of the world to find, learn and work with some of the world’s greatest Latin musicians. Now based in the UK Brant has come here from Detroit by way of Los Angeles and Copenhagen (where some of the best contemporary Cuban music can be heard outside of Cuba).