Luis Bonilla’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Intro American musician
Is Jazz musician 
From United States of America 
Type Music 
Gender male
Birth 12 October 1965, Los Angeles
Age: 54 years

Luis Bonilla (born Luis Diego Bonilla, October 12, 1965, Los Angeles, Ca.) is an American Afro-Cuban and jazz trombonist born in Los Angeles, California of Costa Rican descent. He is a Grammy Award- winning performer, composer, and Music Professor, about whom the New York Times has described as the artist who “explodes the usual musical structures of both Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz”.

Biography

Education

As a youth, Bonilla was introduced to music in general, and exposed to jazz in particular, while still a young student in school. He tells the anecdote of how he was enrolled in a brass class, believing it to be a metal shop class, only to find himself with a trombone in his hands. While learning to play the instrument, he found within himself a talent for music, and an enjoyment of jazz. He attended Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles where he studied under John Rinaldo, director of music at the school. After he graduated high school Bonilla studied at Cal State Los Angeles, earning a B.A. degree, and a M.A. degree in Jazz Performance and Composition from the Manhattan School of Music. He first studied in Los Angeles with Don Raffell and Roy Main.

Sideman

Bonilla has supported himself as a session musician and a sideman performing with jazz artists such as McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, Astrud Gilberto, Willie Colón and Toshiko Akiyoshi. He has demonstrated his versatility as a musician working with artists as varied as Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Marc Anthony, La India and Mary J. Blige. He has drawn inspiration from Lester Bowie, his mentor, with whom he toured. Bonilla calls Bowie his “father away from home”, with whom he has learned a great deal.

In 1985 he joined the Gerald Wilson orchestra, with whom he recorded. Pasos Gigantes (1998) reached JAZZIZ’s Latin Jazz Recording top ten, and both this effort and Escucha! (2000), were critically praised.

Bonilla moved on to become a bandleader and has recorded albums of his own.

Recent work

Bonilla has evolved into a Professor of Music, having secured employment from the Manhattan School of Music, and is on the faculty at Temple University and New England Conservatory. He is a member of the Mingus Big Band, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. In February 2009, he received two Grammy Awards with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (Arturo O’Farrill Dir.)

In 2010 he was featured as a classical soloist on The Chamber Wind Music of Jack Cooper (Centaur Records) and as a jazz soloist on the large ensemble recording Coming Through Slaughter – The Bolden Legend (GCR) further showing his diversity as a major trombone artist. He served as both the main producer and a trombone artist on the 2014 CD release Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra on the Planet Arts Recording label.

Select Discography

  • The New In You (1985)
  • We’re Back! (1986)
  • Diversions (1987)
  • Seems Like Old Times (1987)
  • Monstrosity! (1988)
  • Jenna Gerald Wilson’s Orchestra of the 90’s (1989)
  • It’s About Time (1990)
  • Pasos Gigantes & His Latin Jazz All-Stars (1991) Candid Records
  • The Fire This Time (1992)
  • Esucha! (2000) Candid Records
  • Can I Persuade You (2002) Planet Arts
  • The Way, Music of Slide Hampton (2004) Planet Arts
  • Up From The Skies, Music of Jim McNeely (2006) Planet Arts
  • Terminal Clarity (2007)
  • Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard (2008) Planet Arts
  • I Talking Now (2009) Planet Arts
  • Coming Through Slaughter: The Bolden Legend (2009)
  • The Chamber Wind Music of Jack Cooper (2010) Centaur Records
  • Twilight (2010) Planet Arts
  • Forever Lasting (2011) Planet Arts – Live in Tokyo double CD
  • Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (2014) Planet Arts
  • Over Time: The Music of Bob Brookmeyer (2014) Planet Arts

As sideman

With Dave Douglas

  • Spirit Moves (Greenleaf, 2009)
  • United Front: Brass Ecstasy at Newport (Greenleaf, 2011)
  • Rare Metal (Greenleaf, 2011)

With Gerald Wilson

  • Jenna (Discovery, 1989)
  • New York, New Sound (Mack Avenue, 2003)
  • In My Time (Mack Avenue, 2005)
  • Monterey Moods (Mack Avenue, 2007)
  • Detroit (Mack Avenue, 2009)
  • Legacy (Mack Avenue, 2011)

DVD, movies, television

  • 1988: Man Against the Mob (T.V. Movie, NBC)
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