Otmaro Ruiz Quartet + Simon Metzger Quartet
October 11, 2024 @ 6:00 pm – 10:30 pm
presented in partnership with
6:00pm – The Simon Metzger Quartet
The winning ensemble of our 2024 Young Artist Competition.
Simon Metzger – Drumset
Kai Suzuki – Tenor Saxophone
Isaiah Harwood – Piano
Quinn Sims – Bass
7:00pm- Otmaro Ruiz Quartet
Otmaro Ruiz – piano
Clarence Penn – drums
Sezin Ahmet Turkmenoglu – bass
Katisse Buckingham – sax/flute
“Ruiz [coming up] with a stunning improvisation that was both a mini-history of jazz keyboard and a personal expression of his own expansive musical eclecticism.“
– Don Heckman, LA Times
The Angel City Jazz Young Artist Competition is an avenue for young Jazz musicians in the greater Los Angeles area to create and collaborate with one another in an effort to expand upon the traditional concepts of Jazz composition/arrangement, improvisation and ensemble performance.
More info here
Otmaro Ruiz
Considered one of the most important jazz pianists in the current scene, venezuelan Otmaro Ruiz is known for his versatility and virtuosity. After working intensively in Venezuela with artists such as Soledad Bravo and Ilan Chester, Otmaro moves to Los Angeles in 1989 to join the group of great names of the jazz world such as Alex Acuña, Justo Almario y Abraham Laboriel, with whom still collaborates in diverse projects.
With an intense musical career, filled with concerts, workshops and recordings worldwide, Otmaro worked for 5 years with Dianne Reeves as a pianist and musical director. During this period, Otmaro participated in the recording project of her CD “In The Moment – Live in Concert”, which won the Grammy Award 2001. In that same year, Alex Acuna’s album “Acuarelas de Tambores, also with Otmaro’s collaboration, was nominated to a Grammy.
His collaboration with Weston Woods Studios for the Scholastic Series of animated children videos have won important recognitions like the “2004 Audie Award” in the Children Production Category and Bronze Remi at the 2004 Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival (for the Soundtrack of “Chato and The Party Animals”); Otmaro also received a Life Time Special Award “International Exposure” from the Venezuelan National Artist’s Institute (for outstanding career in a foreign country).
In 2012, Otmaro was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Musical Arts from Shepherd University. His work as an arranger was recognized by the American Academy of Recording Arts with a 2016 Grammy Nomination and a double Latin Grammy Award Nomination in 2019.
https://www.otmaro.com/