Jose "Pepe" Espinosa

Havana, Cuba

Independent

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Jose “Pepe” Espinosa was born on December 4th, 1974, in Havana, Cuba and has become one of the most sought after percussionists worldwide. Even Juan Ceruto, the ultimate perfectionist, chose him to play on "A Puerto Padre", his tribute to Emiliano Salvador. That project was extremely important to Ceruto and he handpicked his players with the greatest care. Espinosa has also played on the Issac/Ceruto/Betancourt Grammy-nominated masterpiece, "La Formula" and shared the percussion duties on Klimax's latest disc with Yonder Peña.

He currently holds the prestigious timbale chair in Cubanismo, Jesus Alemañy’s unusual but extremely successful band of all-stars which plays traditional Cuban music as it's never been played - primarily because the group is packed with top Timba musicians, lured away by Cubanismo’s seemingly never-ending world tour and lucrative recording contracts. But to really hear Pepe Espinosa swing, check out his playing on two of the hardest driving timba classics ever recorded: Danny Lozada and Juan Carlos Gonzalez’s "Tanto le Pedi" and Bamboleo "Yo no me parezco a nadie".

Pepe is currently living in Stockholm, Sweden, and he has played with various stars from the world of international salsa such as Cano Estremera ( El Albino ), Eddie Santiago, Grupo Niche, Adalberto Santiago, Isamael Miranda, Luisito Carrion, Paquito Guzman and Grupo " Guayacan ", among others. Pepe recently completed a tour of Europe with the Latin Groove Orquesta, which includes Felipe Cabrera (Bass) German Velazco (Tenor Sax & Flute) Alexander Abreu (Trumpet) Calixto Oviedo (Drums) Hernan Lugano (Piano).

Pepe Espinosa uses Tycoon Percussion Instruments exclusively while playing or touring – his setup includes Tycoon’s Master Platinum Fade Series Congas. In 2007, Pepe started his own band called Timbakó Timabakó, playing diverse styles of Latin music like Salsa, Son, Timba, Latin Jazz and many others.