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| ELIANA CUEVAS QUINTET
BAND BIOS
George Koller has accumulated hundreds of wildly diverse performing and recording credits in his expansive musical career: The Shuffle Demons, Phil Woods, Peter Gabriel, Loreena McKennitt, Bruce Cockburn, Holly Cole, Ian Tyson, Julie Michels, Joe Sealy, Carol Welsman, and Valdy to name only a few. Recognized primarily as a bass player, George plays a variety of instruments; many featured on his award-winning solo CD, Music for Plants, Animals, and Humans. (grand prize, HMV "Fresh Blood" national competition). Having written dozens of songs over the years, George is now recording and preparing releases of new material featuring his guitar and vocals. Recent activities include touring Canada with Joe Sealy and Cindy Church, with their recording. "The Nearness of You.. the Songs of Hoagy Carmichael". Furthermore, he continues to produce concerts and recordings in the jazz, world and Indian Classical music styles, and is composing new east-west fusion music.
Luis Guerra is a young, very accomplished Cuban piano player that has quickly become one of the most in demand piano players in Toronto, not only in the Latin music community but in the Jazz community as well. He was born in Cuba, on March 24th 1983 and studied music in the "Escuela Nacional de Arte", National Arts School of Habana. In the year 2000 he became the piano player for Mayra Caridad Valdés, a younger sister of Latin Jazz Grammy award winner Chucho Valdés and lead singer of the Cuban group Irakere. With her, Luis Guerra recorded in the album "La Diosa del Mar", and in August 2000 toured Canada. In March 2001 he went to France as a member of the French-Cuban project called Lemanacuba, led by the French composer Luc Le Masne. In that same year, he toured with that project performing in the city of Pierrefond, amongst other cities, and also at La Cigale, a theater that has been around since the 19th Century and that is now one of Paris' major concert venues. In 2001 he recorded with the David Murray Latin Big Band, led by the renowned North American saxophone player David Murray in the album "Now is Another Time", released with Justin Time Records. Since 2001 he has been living in Toronto and has been actively performing and recording with several artists including saxophonist Richard Underhill. With him, Luis recorded in the album "Tales from the Blue Lounge" which won a Juno in the 'Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year' category of the 2003 Juno Awards.
An expert in Latin American percussion, Luis is sought after by countless artists in many genres. He has performed on the most prestigious stages with top Canadian, American and Latin American musicians such as Jane Bunnett, Ralph Irizarry, Hilario Duran and Oscar D' Leon. He is also very active as a recording artist for major labels. Luis is an integral part of Canada's award-winning Latin jazz/funk ensemble "Nick Ali & CRUZAO" the winner of the Montreal Jazz Festival's coveted 2001 "Grand Prix du Jazz" Award and the 2001 CBC Galaxie "Rising Star" Award. He has studied extensively with Cuban percussion masters José Luis Quintana a.k.a. "Changito" and los Muñequitos de Matanzas. A true master of percussion Luis Excels in any musical environment and is amongst the top percussionists in North America. Daniel Stone, percussion Daniel Stone has been performing in the Canadian music scene for eight years. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Daniel has trained and worked extensively in a variety of musical styles, ranging from Cuban, Brazilian and Spanish music to pop, rock and jazz. He has toured all over Canada, the United States and Europe with Juno and Grammy award-winning artists, and has appeared on over twenty commercially released CDs. Daniel has been for three years the percussionist for flamenco guitarist Jorge Miguel and since then, he has also become a fixture in the Toronto Flamenco scene. He is as well actively involved as a percussionist, composer and arranger for the hit salsa band Cache, and leads the Latin Jazz Quintet Mamboso. |
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