Dafnis Prieto
From Cuba, Dafnis Prieto’s revolutionary drumming techniques and compositions have had a powerful impact on the Latin and Jazz music scene, nationally and internationally.
Various awards include a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship Award; a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy nomination for “Dafnis Prieto Big Band / Back to the Sunset” in 2018; a Grammy Award nomination for “Absolute Quintet” as Best Latin Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist” in 2007; and “Up & Coming Musician of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2006. Also a gifted educator, Prieto has conducted numerous master classes, clinics, and workshops throughout the world. Dafnis was a faculty member of Jazz studies at NYU from 2005 to 2014, and in 2015 became a faculty member of Frost School of Music at UM (University of Miami).
As a composer, he has created music for dance, film, chamber ensembles, and most notably for his own bands ranging from duets to big bands, including the distinctively different groups featured by eight acclaimed recordings as a leader: About The Monks, Absolute Quintet, Taking The Soul For a Walk, Si o Si Quartet-Live at Jazz Standard, Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio, Triangles and Circles, Back to the Sunset, and Transparency. In 2016 Prieto published the groundbreaking analytical and instructional drum book A World of Rhythmic Possibilities, followed in 2020 by Rhythmic Synchronicity, a book for non-drummers inspired by a course of the same name that Prieto developed at the Frost School of Music.
He has received new works commissions, grants, and fellowships from Chamber Music America, Princeton University, Jazz at Lincoln Center, East Carolina University, and Meet the Composer. Dafnis Prieto is the founder of the independent music company Dafnison Music.
Since his arrival to New York in 1999, Dafnis has worked in bands led by Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Bebo Valdés, Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Samuels & The Caribbean Jazz Project, Jane Bunnett, D.D. Jackson, Edward Simon, Roy Hargrove, Don Byron and Andrew Hill, among others. He has performed at many national and international music festivals as a sideman and as a bandleader presenting several of his own projects and music.
Prieto is the founder of the independent music company Dafnison Music. He endorses: Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Latin Percussion, Evans Drumheads, and Vic Firth Sticks.
Dafnis Prieto Big Band
Dafnis Prieto Sextet
Triangles and Circles Press Release
Dafnis Prieto Si o Si Quartet
Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio
Edmar Casteneda & Dafnis Prieto “In Duo”
PHOTOS
Osmani Tellez
Osmani Tellez
Osmani Tellez
Henry Lopez
David Garten
Manuel Valera
Proverb Trio
VIDEOS
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Press Quotes — Dafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
Press Release — Dafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
Downbeat Magazine Feature November 2016
“Dafnis Prieto has an infectious dedication to the Afro-Cuban groove, and it’s on full display with his latest recording, Triangles And Circles. The album shimmers and swells with his heart-pounding drum work, but it’s wrapped by beautiful melodic structure and thoughtful compositions that draw from a broad musical ocean. …all deliver killer solos, but not at the expense of the grand vision of the song. That’s the magic of Prieto: He has the ability to offer compositions and arrangements that are distinctly him, but he craftily leaves room for pedal-to-the-metal improvisation from a truly great band.” —Down Beat Editors’ Pick
“Dafnis Prieto has been one of the most impressive musicians in New York jazz over the past 15 years. Whatever band he’s playing in, at some point the rigor of his playing commands you to focus directly on him. Each stroke of each different rhythm, from each different limb, feels exact, efficient, full of intent. His style of composition explicitly puts the ensemble first. He writes pieces of music with great balance, in which one whirling ensemble section flows into the next, each containing a new melodic strain and just enough space for a soloist to make a mark over a vamp, then stop before indirection sets in. His sextet is full of fluid improvisers, but they’re tightly managed.” —Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
“The Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto — also a composer, bandleader and 2011 MacArthur fellow, and an adopted New Yorker of long standing — has a vision for Latin jazz that hurtles in multiple directions at once. Triangles and Circles features an ace sextet with a smartly pugnacious front line: His pieces, full of sharp turns and jostling counterpoint, highlight the hair-trigger reflexes of the musicians, and yet everyone finds room to breathe. And even when a tune seems to hinge on a concept the music stays grounded, packed with incident and forward purpose.” —Nate Chinen, The New York Times
“Dafnis Prieto’s music is about more than intricate rhythm. He writes good melodies too, putting tuneful figures through inversions and variations, much like his drum patterns.”
—Kevin Whitehead, Fresh Air/NPR
“Dafnis Prieto is a technical virtuoso who can send jaws tumbling to the floor with his own very original fusion of Afro-Cuban grooves and gnarly post-bop rhythms, flawlessly executed in a blur of hands and sticks. But it’s the bold musical vision and compositional ambition that really set the New York-based percussionist apart, and put him and his talented sextet at the cutting edge of what some are calling Pan-American jazz. The band burns with a white heat, nailing the leader’s complex but always approachable charts and soloing with passion and purpose.” —Cormac Larkin, The Irish Times
“I’ve heard him play dazzling percussion in so many settings over the years that I thought I knew Dafnis Prieto. He was simply one of the greatest drummers playing today. With the release of his new sextet album, Triangles and Circles, I have to reconsider Prieto and add a few things to the list: composer and arranger. I can’t stop playing this album; the tunes are just too good and the arrangements make them even better. A Cuban native, Prieto brings the beguiling Afro-Cuban music of his culture to every cut… Every solo is magnificent, but it’s the group work that really stands out. Aside from his distinct voicings, Prieto is percussive even when he is arranging horn parts, and that may be his secret ingredient on this brilliant album.”
—Ron Netsky, Rochester City Newspaper