Tony Rodriguez

Bernardo Antonio Rodríguez Menendez - pianist, composer, arranger and producer - was born in Havana City on the 10th of December 1980.

Between 2002 and 2006 he spent time as the leader of <a href="spotify:artist:2NssDL7cTwvfQm01xvepBQ" data-name="Issac Delgado">Issac Delgado</a>&#39;s backing band, before moving on to a similar role for the singer-songwriter <a href="spotify:artist:2KVT6XgP2vgdUat355J7hy" data-name="Carlos Varela">Carlos Varela</a>. It was in 2007 when he started Djazz together with the well-known Cuban DJ <a href="spotify:artist:11qAo8U9HexayS8GnKhnA1" data-name="Wichy de Vedado">Wichy de Vedado</a>, a project that fused together jazz with electronic music and produced the outstanding track <a href="spotify:track:28e4jt5080F2uotSoyB3Zr" data-name="La Perla del Son">La Perla del Son</a> amongst many others.

Tony Rodríguez has performed at several notable festivals such as the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival (2001), the North Sea Jazz Festival (2006) and in almost all the editions of Jazz Plaza. He is the current pianist of <a href="spotify:artist:05qiwKzU1RgkyqkEH1ZFlA" data-name="Havana D’Primera">Havana D’Primera</a>, the Cuban salsa collective led by <a href="spotify:artist:2YnskQkgb6kTSXh9YcNzgu" data-name="Alexander Abreu">Alexander Abreu</a> with whom he has appeared in some of the most famous live music venues across the world.

In 2018, after several years of leading the backing bands of star Cuban acts, Tony Rodriguez finally let loose his creativity in the form of the jazz album <a href="spotify:album:3Td18lXbpe686TlyQ1q4Hm" data-name="At Last">At Last</a> . For the recording of the album he locked himself away in the Abdala Studios​ in Havana for three days together with the best jazz musicians in Cuba: the percussionist Oliver Valdes, the saxophonist Carlos Miyares, the bassist Yandy Martinez and the trumpeter Alejandro Delgado. The five of them recorded seven jazz instrumentals together live in the studio, with melodies and elements that draw comparisons to cool jazz and hard bop.