|
Drummer from
Havana, Cuba, whose family relocated to Miami, Florida, when he was still
very young and encouraged his musical instincts. It did not hurt that his father was
a drummer, as well, and it was his influence that eventually landed Ludwig
behind a drum kit. By his own
admission, he never really took it all that seriously until he was in middle
school and saw that other students were well ahead of him. This spurred him to practice more
diligently and no doubt helped propel him into the University of Miami,
where he studied and received a B.A. for Studio Music and Jazz
Performance. He played with all
of the university’s best music groups and eventually branched out
into the local club scene. Some
of the artists with whom he worked around this time include Sammy Figueroa,
Othello Mollineux, Eddie River, Maria Schneider,
Ira Sullivan, and Nestor Torres.
After matriculating from the university, he decided to move to The
Big Apple where he auditioned for the jazz-fusion group, Spyro Gyra. He aced the audition and went on to perform
with them for about two years, appearing on The Deep End and Wrapped
in a Dream albums. Then he
hooked up with Daniel Smith on the Zah Zah label for a pair of recordings, Bebop Bassoon and The Swingin’
Bassoon. He rang out the
old year with Martin Bejerano at The Globe Café
in 2006 and has drummed with him ever since. In 2007, he appeared on Martin’s
Evolution/Revolution and Sammy
Figueroa’s Magician CDs. Recent releases on which you can
hear his drumming include Eldar Djangirov’s Virtue
and Craig Enright’s La Belleza. Ludwig spent much of 2009 playing
live dates with The Martin Bejerano Quartet,
including an appearance at the 29th Annual CMJ Music Marathon in
New York, New York.
Sources:
- http://www.spyrogyra.com/biographies.php?bio=ludwig
- http://www.yamaha.com
- http://www.zahzah.com/artists/afonsol.htm
- http://jazztimes.com/guides/artists/11362-ludwig-afonso
- http://www.martinbejerano.com/html/itinerary.php
- http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/profile/profile.php?id=1600
- http://www.cduniverse.com
- http://www.myspace.com/ludwigafonso
|