JUAN CRUZ DE URQUIZA
Trumpeter, composer, arranger

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 13, 1965.

He studied music at Universidad Católica Argentina (1983 to 1985) and later at Berklee College of Music (1991 to 1993), graduating at Major of Professional Music.
 
He studied Trumpet with Wilfredo Cardoso, Roberto “Fats” Fernández and Américo Belloto, and harmony and improvisation with American sax player Jerry Bergonzi.
 
He played with Arnie Lawrence, Paquito D´Rivera, Chucho Valdés, Johnny Coles, Mike Longo, Marc Copland, David Kikoski, Osvaldo Fattoruso and with many of the most important jazz musiicans in Argentina such as Luis Salinas, Javier Mallosetti, Horacio Larumbe, Jorge Navarro, B. López Furst, R. Fernández, Mono Fontana, etc.
 
He has recorded with The BIG VAN, Los Guachos (Guillermo Klein). Chilean drummer Alejandro Espinosa, El Guetto, Arida Conta Group (with american trumpet player Tom Harrell) and many others.
 
He has received many awards, including the Berklee College of Music Award in Argentina in 1989, the Boston Jazz Society Achievement in 1992 and the Clark Terry Award in 1993. "Trumpeter of the year 2000/2002" (Daily news La Nación) and "Jazz revelation" Clarín Awards 2003 (Daily news Clarín).

He returned to Argentina in 1994 and organized his own band with which he played in the most important jazz venues there.
 
In his professional role he also works as a session musician, having recorded and/or played with: "Deep Purple", "Sui Generis", Caetano Veloso, Fito Páez, "Divididos", Armando Manzanero, Olga Guillot, Miguel Cantilo, "Los Redondos", Diego Torres, Silvina Garré, Jaf, Sandra Mihanovich, Ignacio Copani, Manuel Wirtz, "Los Pericos", "Los Piojos", "Illia Kuryaki & The Valderramas " among others.
 
In January 1996 he was invited by Portuguese pianist Bernardo Sasseti to take part of Sasseti´s proyect “Mundos”, which was performed live in Lisbon and recorded for the record label “VERVE”.

In that year he was part of Cuban saxophone player Paquito D’Rivera’s Quintet, with whom he played at Lapataia International Jazz Festival in Uruguay.

In 1997 he was invited to the fifth edition of the Internatonal Jazz festival in Chile, where also were James Moody, Ivan Lins an other important musicians.

In 1999 he co-founded “Quinteto Urbano”, group with which he played all year long. At the end of the year they recorded their first CD, which was issued the next year and warmly welcomed by the press.

In that same year he started working as teacher at the Escuela de Música Contemporánea (Berklee in Argentina).

In 2000, he records the second CD with "Quinteto Urbano", released in 2001 by prestigious Argentinean record label "Acua Records ".

In 2002, "Quinteto Urbano" began to take part in international festivals (Chile, Uruguay etc.) and also toured extensively all over Argentina. In 2003, the group was invited by the eminent recording label "Fresh Sound" to produce and release their third project.

The instruments and mouthpieces of Juan Cruz De Urquiza are mastered by All Brass.