Bobby Sanabria

West Side Story Reimagined

Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in NYC, this exciting new reimagining is West Side Story like you’ve never heard it before as performed by the amazing multi-Grammy nominated 21 piece Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band. This set includes an accompanying 16 page booklet containing rare photographs and features the rhythms of various Latin American countries, and more with exciting new instrumental arrangements all done through the lens of the Latin jazz continuum.

"Besides dedicating this recording to the musical genius of Leonard Bernstein, we are donating proceeds from this special commemorative 2 CD set to the Jazz Foundation of America Puerto Rico Relief Fund. I saw this as an opportunity to give back and help my ancestral homeland Puerto Rico. As most of us know, hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico, leaving its residents unable to recover. Puerto Ricans have been American citizens since 1917, and the government's response has been unsatisfactory at best. This is a cause many of us are passionate about and every bit of generosity helps." - Bobby Sanabria

Listen Now

Bobby Sanabria is a Latin Jazz institution. His 2008 Grammy nominated Big Band Urban Folktales was the first Latin jazz recording to ever reach #1 on the national Jazz Week charts. In 2009 the Sanabria-directed Manhattan School of MusicAfro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Kenya Revisited Live!!!, a reworking of the music from Machito’s greatest album, Kenya. In 2011 the recording Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! by the same orchestra under Bobby’s direction was nominated for a Latin Jazz Grammy. Partial proceeds from the sale of both CD’s continue to support the scholarship program in the Manhattan School of Music’s jazz program.

Bobby’s 2012 big band recording MULTIVERSE was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards. His work as an activist led him to fight to reinstate the Latin Jazz category after NARAS decided to eliminate many ethnic and regional categories in 2010. His recording with the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra entitled “Que Viva Harlem!” released in 2014 has received ****1/2 stars in Downbeat magazine. His background having performed and recorded as both a drummer and/or percussionist with every major figure in the history of Latin jazz, as well as his encyclopedic knowledge of both jazz and Latin music history, makes him unique in his field. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center and is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy as well as The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.

West Side Story Reimagined

Recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in NYC, this exciting new reworking is West Side Story like you’ve never heard it before, through the exciting lens of the Latin jazz continuum. This album celebrates West Side Story's recent 60th birthday in 2017 and Maestro Bernstein’s 100th in 2018. A re-imagining from the perspective of a jazz musician, a Latin musician, and a native Nuyorican son who is proud to say he is from the city that defines aché, hipness, and cool

Multiverse

A multiplicity of styles all joined together by the virtuosity of the contemporary jazz musician and the forward thinking vision of a man who has, as he has stated, one foot in the past, one in the present, and his head always looking toward the future. Revel in the MULTIVERSE. Enjoy the ride.

Big Band Urban Folktales

Bobby Sanabria takes the Afro-Cuban big band jazz tradition into the future by doing a re-working of Frank Zappa's "Grand Wazoo" and premiering two never before recorded Hermeto Pascoal compositions, "O Som Do Sol" and "Obrigado Mestre" as well as a variety of other new compositions re-defining the big band tradition and the role of the drummer in jazz

Kenya Revisited

Fifty years ago Machito & the Afro-Cubans recorded the album which has become an Afro-Cuban jazz masterpiece, Kenya. Now multiple Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria directing the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra takes Kenya into the 21st century with exciting new arrangements and special guest, NEA jazz master and Kenya alumnus Cándido Camero.

"There's every reason to hope that Steven Spielberg's remake of "West Side Story" will improve upon the 1961 film, but I doubt if we'll ever hear a more thrilling interpretation of that immortal score than that of the Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band.

Will Friedwald - The Wall Street Journal

"Congratulations, Bobby, on finally elevating this great work to a place of soulful and spiritual authenticity. The result is a masterpiece."

Marc Myers - JazzWax

Bobby Sanabria

West Side Story Reimagined

Multiverse

Big Band Urban Folktales

Kenya Revisited

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