Tino Contreras

Jazz drummer Tino Contreras is one of Mexico's national cultural treasures. He is an award-winning composer, arranger, and bandleader, whose percussion-centric approach is almost always melody-based with tempos usually suitable for dancing. For more than 60 years Contreras has recorded and performed internationally, creating an original, adventurous sound in the process. He blends music from across Latin America with jazz and other international sounds. He made his recording debut with 1953's Volado por los Merengues. On 1962's Jazz a Paris, he used big-band and mariachi to ap...