Artist Bio:
Evaristo Machado is part of the new generation of Cuban composers of modern salsa and Afro-Latin jazz, as well as a powerful singer and dancer. This Cuban-Canadian combines salsa with traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms and flamenco resulting in highly danceable songs with sophisticated arrangements, innovative rhythms and ear-catching melodies.
Evaristo was born in Havana City, Cuba, where he started composing music as a teenager. He graduated from Havana's Ignacio Cervantes Music School, training to be a singer, as well as classical guitar, piano, acting, and musical composition. In the 1980s, Evaristo started playing guitar and singing publicly, both in street performances and with rock and pop bands around the Havana club scene.
For the next step in his career, Evaristo joined the Tropicana Nightclub in Havana as a singer and dancer. The Tropicana has a world-famous cabaret-style nightclub show, performing six nights a week. He stayed with the company for six years, performing regularly and eventually becoming one of the principal singers for the show. The company went on many international tours, performing in Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland and Holland.
Evaristo came to Canada in 1997, where he met Grammy-nominee Jane Bunnett, and started performing with her Cuban jazz ensemble, which includes Hilario Duran and her husband Larry Kramer. He performed at the Du Maurier Theatre with Memo Acevedo in 1998.
Evaristo and Orchestra started in 2000 and has been playing in clubs around Toronto ever since. Evaristo writes both music and lyrics, and works with a variety of arrangers, including Juno Award nominee Hilario Duran, and new talent Julio Cesar Jimenez. Backed up by a ten-piece band, they play Evaristo's highly danceable songs, as well as some Latin Jazz and traditional Cuban music.
This year his song, "Luna del Barrio," was selected Opening Act, a national competition in which 12 songs by unsigned artists were chosen to be featured on their Web site and a forthcoming CD. Opening Act is run by The Canadian Value of Music Coalition and the Harris Institute for the Arts. —Courtesy Calabash Music
