A fellow trumpet player introduced Sandoval to a recording by Charlie Parker that featured Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. Sandoval told Down Beat magazine that he didn't understand the music, but it pushed him to explore jazz. “And I'm still trying to find out what they were doing.
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With Chucho Valdes, and other former members of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna , he was a founder member of the group irakere in 1973. The Irakere line-up included...