Arturo Sandoval

What gets me about Arturo Sandoval is how the music and the man's life can't be separated. A Cuban kid who fell hard for Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, then actually met Gillespie in 1977, and that friendship became the bridge that helped him defect while touring with the United Nations Orchestra. That's not a footnote to his trumpet playing, it's the whole story of why the playing feels so charged. A Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award confirm the legacy, but I keep coming back to the defection. He chose the horn over safety, and you can hear it.

Name (English)

Arturo Sandoval

Name (Japanese)

アルトゥーロ・サンドヴァル

Reading

あるとぅーろ・さんどゔぁる

Born

November 6, 1949 (age 76)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Ox

Origin

Artemisa, Havana Province, Cuba

Occupation

trumpeter / pianist / composer / jazz musician / percussionist

Awards & achievements

• 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 1999 American Book Awards
• 2023 Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Motto

Private

• Xhttps://x.com/sandovalarturo1
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88%E3%82%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1%E3%83%AB

Tags

• Havana Province
• trumpeter
• pianist
• composer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.