My Father’s Keeper

With a lifetime on and around stages all over the world, trumpeter, vocalist and percussionist Pete Rodríguez has a personal relationship with the term “living legend.” His father was one. For 30 years the famed sonero (vocalist) Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez perfected his fiery, elegant, and intensely personal voice on stages all over the world as part of the Fania All-Stars that helped propel salsa as an international phenomenon.

Classically trained, having played with the Symphony of Puerto Rico as part of his early musical training, Rodríguez became his father’s musical director as a teenager before eventually discovering Jazz. Rodríguez’s career has been built upon a prolific list of musical associations including legends like Tito Puente, Oscar Hernandez, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Chico O’Farrill and Bebo Valdez.

With a sharp ear and eye for detail, Rodríguez has recorded several albums that transverse a wide range of Pan-Latin artistry honoring contemporary innovation and the ancestral foundations they’re built upon. From the modern Jazz tinged El Alquimista (The Alchemist) and meditative Caminando Con Papi (Walking with Papi) to the transcendent El Conde Negro and angular Obstacles, Rodríguez is perpetually testing the limits of his horn, voice and compositional ingenuity.

With I'm Pete Rodríguez Volume I, Rodríguez stakes a bold claim to his namesake while adding a progressive dimension to his already impressive catalog of musical achievements. Tapping into his dynamic new band, Rodríguez continues to pose questions about his musicality, the elite heritage its connected to, and the ways that contemporary society shapes his musical world view.