Latin Jazz Beyond Borders

Jessica Valiente has a BA Barnard College and Manhattan  School of Music; MA Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College, CUNY); DMA the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Valiente has performed in numerous classical, early music, jazz, experimental, Brazilian, Latin, and other world music groups. In the Latin music world, she has played with Orlando Marín, Teatro Pregones, Bronx Conexion, with Grammy award nominee Juan Carlos Formell, and with Grammy Award-winning violinist Ilmar Gavilan.  She directs the multi-generational, all-female charanga, Anaisa. Dr. Valiente has produced all 5 of Los Más Valientes' CD’s, all of which have received wide critical acclaim.  Ms. Valiente has taught music at Brooklyn College, John Jay College, Baruch College, University of Bridgeport, The College of Performing Arts at The New School, Mercy  College, and the John J. Cali School of Music of Montclair State  University.  She is currently on faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Jessica Valiente is an R.S. Berkeley Bass Flute Performing Artist.

In addition to Los Mas Valientes, Debra Kreisberg performs, composes, arranges and records with award-winning klezmer ensembles, Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos, with whom she has toured in  the US, Canada and in Europe. She is the leader of The Highliners Jazz Quartet and freelances in New York City, Boston, and the tri-state region. Debra performed on clarinet, bass clarinet and penny whistle in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of the Tony-Award-winning play Indecent, and in the world premiere of Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music at St. Ann's Warehouse (now streaming on HBO). Debra has performed with renowned singer-songwriters Natalie Merchant and Jill Sobule, Bronx Conexión Latin Jazz Big Band; and the global  blues project Hazmat Modine. Her playing and compositions have been  heard on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN Worldbeat, WBGO, SiriusXM Radio, and on Showtime's The L Word. A  graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of  Music, Debra is a full-time Instrumental Music Teacher at Beaver Country Day School, in Brookline, Massachusetts. She has previously served on the  faculties of The Trinity School, Bronx Arts Ensemble, and  Arturo  O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, all in New York City. 

Trombonist and multi-instrumentalist Rick Faulkner has played everything from salsa and Dixieland to the avant-garde. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the legendary ska band the Toasters and in 1994, co-founded the seminal New York Ska Jazz Ensemble (featured in Down Beat and JAZZIZ magazines) and appeared with them at the Montreal Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival, among others. In addition to his work with NYSJE and the Toasters, Rick has performed, toured, and/or recorded with Sloan Wainwright, Ska Shah #1, Tabou Combo, Charlie Persip, David Murray, Wallace Roney, and an impressive list of Latin artists, including Juan Carlos Formell, Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers, Orlando Marin, Raulin Rosendo, Ramon Rodriguez, Willie Martinez y La Familia Sextet, Dave Santiago and Latin Affair, Victor Rendon’s Bronx Conexion, and many others. His arrangements and compositions have been played by Michael Brecker, John Scofield, Bobby Sanabria, The Vermont Philharmonic, and recorded by NYSJE, the Toasters, Los Mas Valientes, and Bronx Conexion. In addition, his compositions have been featured on the Lifetime television show The Place, and the soundtrack of the 1997 feature film Bang, with Lucy Liu. Rick has served on the music faculties of Hunter College-CUNY and Mercy College, and he is the former director of jazz and instrumental studies at the Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities in New York City.  Rick currently teaches instrumental music at New York City’s Talented and Gifted Academy for Young Scholars, and directs the jazz and world music ensemble for Youth Orchestras of Essex County, where he is also composer and arranger in residence. 

Amy Quint Millan holds a degree in jazz piano performance from Western Michigan University. She has performed with some of the greatest names in Latin music in the last 30 years, including Johnny Almendra y Los Jovenes del Barrio, Jimmy Sabater, Jr. y Su Orquesta, Annette Aguilar and Stringbeans, and Dave Santiago and Latin Affair, among others. She has performed and acted as an assistant musical director with Teatro Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. She is the co-leader of YÁMBAWA, a latin fusion band with diverse musical influences which she founded with percussionist Anthony Carrillo.

Igor Atalita was born and raised in Curacao,  Netherlands Antilles, where he played acoustic bass for 8 years with the  Curacao Symphony Orchestra. He moved to Boston in 1987 to pursue his  studies at the Berklee College of Music. In 1993 Igor graduated with a degree in performance and jazz composition. Since that time Igor has been lending his piano talents to such major Latin artists as Giovanni Hidalgo, Puntilla, Bobby Sanabria, Mauricio Smith,  the Tito Puente Orchestra, Andy Montanez, La India, Tito Nieves, Pete “El  Conde” Rodriguez, and many, many more few. He was musical director of the Pathmark Hispanic Arts Festival and has performed in major Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including “Four Guys Named Jose” and “Quien Mato a Hector LaVoe."  He has toured Europe with Patato Valdez, Ray Vega, and  Bronx Horns. His festival credits include performances at the Bern,  Switzerland Jazz Festival and the Heineken Jazz Festival in Puerto Rico.  

Anna Milat-Meyer was born in Brooklyn, NY and started playing the electric bass at the age of 15. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music from the City College of New  York, where she studied upright bass and jazz with Ron Carter, and Latin bass  with legendary salsa and Latin jazz bandleader/composer Ray Santos. In  addition to her studies at City College, she has also studied with notable Latin bassist Guillermo Edgehill at The Harbor Center for the Performing Arts in East Harlem. Anna has performed with numerous  funk, reggae, ska, jazz, salsa, and merengue bands, including flutist Carlos Jimenez, Annette Aguilar and Stringbeans, Las Chicas del Merengue, Las Chicas de Nueva York, Retumba, Avenida B, and Skinnerbox. Currently she  performs with ska-punk band the Pilfers, appearing on their debut release, Chawalaleng (Mojo Records). She also frequently performs with klezmer sensations, The Isle of Klezbos. 

Yasuyo Kimura holds a Bachelor of Music from Mukogawa Women's University in Japan. Originally a dancer, Yasuyo moved from her native Japan to New York City to study modern dance. It was in her dance classes that she became attracted to the sounds of percussion. Since then, she has dedicated herself to her passion for playing percussion. Her mentors included Greg Askew, Johnny Almendra, Wilson "Chembo" Corniel, Victor Rendón, and Louie Bauzo, all from the renowned Harbor Conservatory for the  Performing Arts (formerly known as "Boys Harbor") in Spanish Harlem; and with Bobby  Sanabria at The Drummer’s Collective (now known as The Sound Collective) in NYC. She has also studied Brazilian percussion with Scott Kettner and Afro-Peruvian percussion with Marcos Napa. She traveled to Cuba to study wiht Tomas "El Panga" Ramos Ortiz and Yaroldi Abreu.  Currentry, she studies batá drumming with Jerome Goldschmidt. Yasuyo has  performed and recorded with artists and groups including El  Shabazz Djembe Orchestra, Pasión, Grupo Latin Vibes,  Adela Dalto’s Mujeres Latinas, Nicki Mathis, Henry Brun & the Latin  Playerz, Mireya Ramos & 809 Ladies, “Co-Tim-Bó” Percussion Ensemble,  Blue Mambo, and the Bronx Conexión Latin Jazz Big Band, among others.  As an instructor, Yasuyo has been involved in clinics/workshops at  PASIC, KOSA NYC, PAS NJ, and the Eddie Ming Drum School in Bermuda.  

Yasuyo Kimura is an LP Percussion Performing Artist. 

Victor Rendón is  a highly respected educator, author, and veteran of the New  York City Latin music scene. He studied intensively for many years with  Jimmy Ramirez, Dr. Rosemary Small, Louie Bauzo, John Almendra, “Little”  Ray Romero, Frankie Malabe, Mike Collazo Sr., Pablo  Rosario, Changuito, Roberto Borrell, John Amira, Morris “Arnie” Lang, Dom  Famularo, as well as with jazz drummers Paul Guerrero, Henry Okstel, and Charli Persip, among  others. He has worked as a side musician with Mongo Santamaria, Chico O’Farrill, Carlos "Patato" Valdés, the Ray Santos Orchestra, Grupo Caribe, the Latin Jazz Coalition, The "New" Xavier Cugat Orchestra, Grupo Latin Vibe, Rudy Calzado, and performs as a classical percussionist with the Westchester Concert Band.

As an author and transcriber, his work has appeared in Modern Drummer, Percussive Notes, LP Newsletter, Music  in Motion Films, DCI Music Video, Drum! Magazine, and Warner Bros. Publications. He is author of The Art of Playing Timbales (Alfred Publishing). For several years Victor also published his own semi-annual magazine, Latin  Percussionist. Rendón, who holds a Bachelor of Music from the  University of North Texas and a Masters degree in education from Hunter College, has had a lengthy career teaching instrumental music and Latin  percussion in the New York City Public Schools. 

Formerly  co-leader of the Rodríguez/Rendón Latin Jazz Orchestra, he now leads  the Bronx Conexión Latin Jazz Big Band. Currently, he teaches and  directs the Latin Jazz Ensemble and the Percussion Ensemble at Lehman College, CUNY. A  successful clinician, he conducts workshops in Latin percussion styles.  

Victor Rendón is an LP, Sabian, Vic Firth, and Evans Performing Artist and  Educator.

Panamanian percussionist Renato Thoms holds degrees from Berklee College of Music (BM Music Performance), and Boston Conservatory (MM Jazz Studies). He was awarded a musical merit scholarship at Berklee and received the Berklee College of Music Professional Performance Division Latin Percussion Award for Outstanding Musical Ability in the Area of Latin Percussion Performance. He was also a finalist in the 2000 Thelonius Monk Hand Drum Competition. He has performed with Latin jazz luminaries, including Rubén Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Pérez, Conrad Herwig, Brian Lynch, Ray Vega, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jon Lucien, Sol y Canto, Paquito D'Rivera, Victor Mendoza, Antonio Hart, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, Dave Valentin, Arturo Sandoval, Gato Barbieri and the late Hilton Ruiz. He tours with the Dizzy Gillespie Afro Latin Experience All Stars, has recorded with Eric Reed, Antonio Hart, Harvie Swartz, Edú Tancredi, Hilton Ruiz, and The Boston Pops, among others, and is demand with a great number of Latin and jazz groups in NYC.

In addition to the Latin and jazz idioms, Renato plays in a variety of styles, including classical, pop and R&B. He was a cast member-musician of the 2005 Broadway production of The Mambo Kings and performed on both Latin Grammy Awards (2006) and the 2018 Grammy awards. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Wendy Williams Show, and other television programs. 

Renato is an Adjunct Professor at CUNY’s John Jay College where he teaches World Music Courses. He has lectured and taught master classes at Holy Cross University, Rutgers University, LaGuardia Community College, Princeton University, The Crane School of Music, Carnegie Hall, and Conservatorio Superior de Música in Spain. Renato conducts and directs the after-school Afro-Caribbean percussion programs at Wingspan Arts.