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Afonso, Ludwig (21st January 1978-Present)

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:

  1. http://www.spyrogyra.com/biographies.php?bio=ludwig
  2. http://www.yamaha.com
  3. http://www.zahzah.com/artists/afonsol.htm
  4. http://jazztimes.com/guides/artists/11362-ludwig-afonso
  5. http://www.martinbejerano.com/html/itinerary.php
  6. http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/profile/profile.php?id=1600
  7. http://www.cduniverse.com
  8. http://www.myspace.com/ludwigafonso
  9. https://www.discogs.com/artist/2401067-Ludwig-Afonso