Junior Santos

ONTARIO

junior santos

🇨🇦

junior santos 🇨🇦

Junior Santos, a virtuoso percussionist hailing from the Dominican Republic, was destined for the drum set, having grown up watching his father’s band rehearse in their backyard, eager to mimic the percussionists.

After emigrating to Toronto and graduating from the acclaimed Humber College music program, he performed with a range of artists across the local scene. He founded the popular merengue band Dominicanada in 1991, before leading his own projects fusing Afro-Dominican and Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, alongside some of Canada’s finest artists. In 2021, his debut album, Conpambiche, received a JUNO Awards nomination for Solo Jazz Album of the Year. The record, and his performances, meld his Dominican roots in merengue, pambiche, pri pri and more with jazzy improvisations; notable guest appearances on the album include Joaquín Núñez Hidalgo (bàtá drums), Hilario Durán (piano), Roberto Linares Brown (bass/vocals), Paco Luviano (bass), and others.

As Latin Jazz Net wrote, Santos is able to showcase his rich Afro-Dominican spiritual and musical heritage, balancing the wild, lively sound of Dominican merengue “into a subtle and melodic web that beautifully brings out its underlying delicacy.”