Dayramir Gonzalez: Award-Winning Cuban Jazz Pianist and Composer

Dayramir González is a Havana-born pianist, composer and educator who began his professional career at 16 in Diákara, the Afro-Cuban jazz group of former Irakere member Oscar Valdés. His 2007 debut, Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé, won three Cubadisco awards, and in 2010 he became the first Cuban national to receive Berklee College of Music’s Presidential Scholarship. Based in New York since 2013, he is best known for The Grand Concourse (2018), which DownBeat called “a tour de force,” and for V.I.D.A. (2024), the album marking his 25 years as a professional musician.

Havana: Diákara, Klimax and Habana enTRANCé

Born Dayramir González Vicet, he grew up in Havana in the household of his father, the Afro-Cuban jazz trumpeter Fabián González. Oscar Valdés, the singer and percussionist from Irakere, brought him into Diákara as pianist and composer when he was 16. In 2004 he formed his own group, Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé, a band of piano, bass, drums and percussion that has performed internationally since then.

According to his biography, he won Havana’s JoJazz competition in 2004 and 2005, and the 2005 first prize for an original composition led to a contract with Cuba’s national label Colibrí. Colibrí released Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé in 2007, and it won three Cubadisco awards, which his biography describes as Cuba’s equivalent of the Grammys. In the same years he appeared on two albums by Giraldo Piloto & Klimax, Solo tú y yo (EGREM, 2008) and Todo Está Bien (Bis Music, 2009), and studied classical composition and orchestration at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana.

Two older pianists shaped the next step. In November 2009 he took part in a “Piano in Three Generations” concert in Spain with Chucho and Bebo Valdés, and Chucho Valdés mentored him as he prepared for his Berklee scholarship auditions. The style he came out of sits at the Cuban end of Latin jazz, where clave-based rhythms carry jazz harmony and improvisation.

Berklee and the Move to New York

González arrived at Berklee in Boston in 2010 as the school’s first Presidential Scholar from Cuba, a distinction that JazzTimes also lists in its artist profile. His teachers there included Danilo Pérez, JoAnne Brackeen, Ed Tomasi and Joe Lovano. While still a student he released Octave (Jazz Revelation Records, 2011), and in November 2012 Chucho Valdés picked him, together with pianist Aldo López-Gavilán, to represent the young generation of Afro-Cuban jazz pianists in Carnegie Hall’s Voices from Latin America series. He graduated in 2013 with the Wayne Shorter Award as the year’s most outstanding jazz composer.

He moved to New York the same year. His New York work has included shows at Joe’s Pub, where he held a residency in 2019, and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club, one of the New York jazz clubs where he still plays. His press kit also lists music he co-wrote and performed with Enrique Bunbury for the 2014 film Cantinflas.

The Grand Concourse (2018)

The Grand Concourse, released on March 2, 2018, on Machat Records, takes its name from the boulevard that runs through the Bronx; in his own description it sums up his move from Havana to New York with the Afro-Cuban tradition he grew up in. Its twelve tracks run about 72 minutes and use a large cast: besides piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesizer, the credits list batá drums, congas, surdo, cajón, pandeiro and timbal next to trumpet, flute, saxophones, guitars, a string section, oboe, French horn and voice. Guests include percussionist Pedrito Martínez on “Iyesa Con Miel,” String Bembe on “Blood Brothers,” Nadia Washington on “Camello Tropical” and Raul Pineda on “Linear Patterns in Havana.”

The range is the point of the record. “Situaciones en 12/8” is built on a West African bass figure, other pieces take on the Cuban classical tradition of the late 19th century, and “Blood Brothers” is an orchestral jazz ballad. In his DownBeat review (August 2018), Bob Doerschuk called the album “a tour de force” and wrote: “As writer, arranger, pianist, leader and guiding spirit of this sensational project, Dayramir Gonzalez exhibits complete command.” González’s press materials give the rating as 4.5 stars. He launched the album at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in October 2018.

Danzón and the Cuban Piano Tradition

González is one of the musicians discussed in the book Danzón: Circum-Caribbean Dialogues in Music and Dance, which places him among the few Cuban jazz artists who combine standard jazz practice with elements of the danzón, the Cuban dance form, and who are reviving and reworking it. His workshops cover son, rumba and Abakuá rhythms as well. He works in the line of Cuban jazz pianists that includes his mentor Chucho Valdés.

Los Van Van and V.I.D.A.

In January 2020 he presented a tribute to Los Van Van at the Havana Jazz Festival, and in 2021 he released Tribute to Juan Formell & Los Van Van, new arrangements of the band’s repertoire. The video for “Marilú” from that project features Mayito Rivera and Telmary Díaz.

V.I.D.A. (2024) takes its title from Verdad, Independencia, Diversidad & Amor (truth, independence, diversity and love) and marks his 25 years as a professional musician. It is dedicated to the Yoruba deity Oshun and draws on the Cuban band Síntesis. Two 2024 videos came out of the same period: “Transiciones en Azul,” with Pedrito Martínez, and a version of the Cuban son “El Manisero” (The Peanut Vendor) with the dance collective Proyecto Rueda de Casino 1830. He also played “El Manisero” as a solo piano piece at the 2024 Havana Jazz Festival.

Teaching

Teaching is a large part of his work. From 2016 to 2018 he ran a program he called The Art School of Contemporary Performance & Creativity in inner-city high schools in the Bronx; by his account about 350 students with no previous formal music training learned theory, ear training and piano technique and performed six pieces in their school auditorium. He has given masterclasses and residencies at the University of Texas at Austin, SOAS University of London, McGill University and the University of Miami, and workshops at the Monterey, Montreal and Havana jazz festivals. His sessions cover Afro-Cuban rhythms, Latin piano, improvisation, composition and arranging.

On Stage in 2026

González, a Yamaha artist since 2015, spent much of 2026 on the road. The calendar on his official site lists Jazz Ahead 2026 in Bremen in April, a Cuban Piano Summit in Barcelona on April 27 with Harold López-Nussa, Marialy Pacheco and Omar Sosa, solo piano dates in Spain and Morocco in May, a Havana concert in June, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest in August, and a September show at Dizzy’s in New York with his V.I.D.A. Afro Cuban Jazz Quartet.

Where to Start Listening

1. The Grand Concourse (Machat, 2018). The fullest picture of him as composer and arranger. Start with “Smiling,” “Blood Brothers” and “Situaciones en 12/8.”
2. V.I.D.A. (2024). His most recent album, built around Afro-Cuban religious themes and the music of Síntesis.
3. Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé (Colibrí, 2007). The Cubadisco-winning debut, released in Cuba three years before he left for Berklee.
4. Tribute to Juan Formell & Los Van Van (2021). His take on Cuban dance music from the Los Van Van songbook.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Dayramir González from?

He was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, where he played with Oscar Valdés’s group Diákara from the age of 16 and studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. He moved to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music in 2010 and has lived in New York since 2013.

What is Dayramir González’s best-known album?

The Grand Concourse, released in 2018 on Machat Records and named after the Bronx boulevard. DownBeat reviewer Bob Doerschuk called it a tour de force. His 2007 debut, Dayramir and Habana enTRANCé, released by the Cuban label Colibrí, won three Cubadisco awards.

What awards has Dayramir González won?

His debut album won three Cubadisco awards in Cuba, and he won Havana’s JoJazz competition in 2004 and 2005. At Berklee he was the first Cuban national to receive the Presidential Scholarship, and he won the Wayne Shorter Award for jazz composition in 2013.