Latin Jazz has always been close to my heart, despite the fact that I was not around this music all my life. My first opportunity came in the late sixties when Luis Gasca, a trumpet player from Houston, Texas, invited me to play trombone on his first L.P. ("Little Giant") with Atlantic Records in New York. In the course of this production I got my first real exposure to real Latin jazz artists such as Mongo Santamaria, Mark Levine and Julio Collazo, along with such jazz giants as Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Richard Davies and Bernard Purdie. After this experience I was hooked and have been ever since.

After arriving in Germany in 1978, I started to write for my new group called "Latino Blue" and eventually recorded my first German LP for Sandra Records. I joined the NDR Big Band in 1991, and soon after started bringing in some Latin jazz big band compositions and performing them internationally. In 1999, on my 60th birthday, German broadcaster NDR threw a party for me at the "Fabrik" featuring the band with Paquito D'Rivera's rhythm section performing my music. It was there I came up with the "Latin Jazz Latino" slogan which is now part of the NDR Big Band music program.

I started a new "Latino Blue" group in 2002 and recorded a CD on Enja Records entitled "A Latin Shade of Blue". That put the band on a concert schedule making appearances at festivals such as JazzBaltica and the Burghausen Jazz Festival. Today, thanks to Skip Records and the NDR Big Band, I have the opportunity to record this latest big band CD featuring my music augmented by great arrangements from Michael Mossman and a guest rhythm section consisting of Oscar Stagnaro, Alon Yavnai, and Mark Walker. Much to my enjoyment, the NDR Big Band played its heart out, and the response from everybody (from the office down to the musicians) was incredible. Needless to say, the same kind of response was received from Skip Records and all the NDR engineers, especially from guest engineer Oliver Bergner, who handled the mastering. To all the participants I can only say... Muchas Gracias".

Joe Gallardo