Yasek Manzano Silva

Biography

Yasek Manzano Silva (Born December 10, 1980) is a Cuban jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger and producer. He began studying music at the Alejandro Garcia Caturla Conservatory in Marianao and reproduced the music he heard on his parents' LPs. In 1995, Manzano entered the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in Havana, where he became interested in jazz music. He later attended the Havana School of Arts and Music.

In 1995, Manzano began to perform regularly at La Zorra Y El Cuervo, a club in Havana. In 1997, Roy Hargrove, an American jazz trumpeter gave him his first trumpet and Silva started to play in various jam sessions in the city. Later, he traveled to New York and was offered a scholarship at the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied under renowned jazz trumpet player Wynton Marsalis and played in the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra.

Back in Cuba in 2003, Manzano started his professional career by forming his own group and recording his first album in collaboration with Roberto Martínez. In recent years he has performed with many notable Cuban musicians, including Chucho Valdés, Joaquín Betancourt, Frank Fernández, Beatriz Márquez, Marta Campos, Emilio Morales, Amauri Pérez, Roberto Julio Carcassés, Tony Martínez, Soraima Pérez (Sory), con el grupo de rock Tesis de Menta, entre otros.

Manzano often has been invited abroad to countries like the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, United Kingdom, South Africa, Switzerland, Italy, and Barbados to record, teach or perform. He also is a member of the del Consejo Nacional de la Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).

Performances and releases

Awards