Percussionist Mayra Casales (photo above) was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. She moved to New York in 1978 and began playing with jazz giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, and Ray Barretto.
In 2006, she released her first album as a leader, Woman on Fire: Mujer Ardiente, on the Afrasia Prod. label. It included guest appearances by violinist Regina Carter and vocalist Carmen Lundy. A review in AllMusic pointed out that “Casales’ accomplished performances reveal the extent of the influence her many collaborators, from Carlos ‘Potato’ Valdes to Celia Cruz and Dizzy Gillespie, have had on her music throughout her years as an accompanist.”
Twenty years ago, Casales created Cocomama, an all-female band specializing in Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz. In a review of the band’s performance this April at the Bronx Music Hall, Jazz Times’ Hari Adivarekar wrote: “When an older couple spontaneously rises and starts dancing to salsa, you know it’s popping.”
Casales now lives in Nyack, NY, and she will be part of the 45th Anniversary All-Star Concert at the Edward Hopper House Museum’s Jazz in the Garden festival on Thursday, August 28. She has also been a mentor to baritone saxophonist Hunter Pullen, profiled in the July/August issue of Jersey Jazz Magazine. Pullen is leading a quintet at Jazz in the Garden on Thursday, July 17.
All eight Jazz in the Garden concerts begin at 7 p.m. at the Edward Hopper House Museum, located at 82 North Broadway in Nyack. For more information or to order tickets, log onto www.edwardhopperhouse.org or call (845) 358-0774.