Zahili González Zamora | photo by robert torres | | |
PRESS RELEASE
Media Contact:
Sue Auclair, President
Sue Auclair Promotions
sue@sueauclair.com | 617.359.5771
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
SCULLERS JAZZ CLUB PRESENTS
ZAHILI ZAMORA & FRIENDS
IN CONCERT
NEW ALBUM RELEASE SHOW:
Overcoming
Friday | October 24 | 2025 | 7:00 pm
Tickets Go On Sale Today
A Single From The New Album
Is Also Released Today:
"Rumination"
______________
Boston, MA--Zahili González Zamora, the brilliant Cuban-born Afro Latin jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, bandleader, arranger and educator, is now releasing a landmark new album and she's coming to Boston's famed Scullers Jazz Club on Friday, October 24 for a very special date. Tickets at $35, $45 and $120 (includes VIP seating and dinner) go on sale today HERE. Zahili's band at Scullers will feature Zahili on piano and vocals, Keisel Jimenez on percussion, Yosvany Terry on sax, Gerson Lazo on bass, Julian Miltenberger on drums and Yandy Garcia on drums. Zahili will also feature a special surprise guest!
Scullers Jazz Club is located in Boston's DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel at 400 Soldiers Field Road in Allston, MA 02134. Parking is available on site. Website: https://www.scullersjazz.com.
| | |
Rumination is streaming today on all platforms!
"Rumination is a composition that evolved in many ways. Initially, this track was titled "Thick Wall," then later "Introspection" and finally I settled on "Rumination," says Zahili.
“I created this work during the pandemic after a three-month complete break from playing music. During that time, I sought to comprehend the unexpected sense of relief I felt, when the pandemic began. I had been experiencing burnout—and music has always been my guiding force—it has taken me from Cuba to Canada to Asia and then to the USA . . . it represents my identity, yet suddenly, I found myself engulfed in fear.”
“Rumination draws inspiration from the emotional journey that many artists face before or after a performance. Questions swirled in my mind: Did I do well? I made a mistake, and then I feared that I wouldn’t be respected. Was I good enough?”
"This piece serves as a letter to myself expressed through spoken word and sound. It reflects the insights I gained in therapy, where I discovered that my stage fright originated in my childhood, as a result of unresolved conflicts."
The track features Zahili on piano, Julian Miltenberger on drums, Pedrito Martinez on bata drums, Gerson Lazo Quiroga on electric bass and Sean Jones on flugelhorn. "Rumination" also includes 'spoken word' written by Zahili herself in collaboration with Sheila Del Bosque.
| | |
INTRO: (Spanish)
Recuerdo un despertar mientras me ahogaba en una incertidumbre eterna.
Recuerdo el pesar provocado por preguntas sin respuestas.
Recuerdo haber librado mil batallas, todas a ciegas.
Recuerdo los miedos que habitaban mi conciencia, y que me paralizaban como agua que hiela.
Y en esa travesía conocí a una niña. La niña que un día fui, la niña que espera, la niña parada en el tiempo con llanto y con pena.
OUTRO:
Recuerdo el pesar y lo recuerdo a ciegas.
Recuerdo los miedos y recuerdo mi pena.
Recuerdo a mi niña, la abrazo y se queda…
| |  | |
INTRO (English Translation)
I remember waking up while drowning in eternal uncertainty.
I remember the sorrow caused by unanswered questions.
I remember having fought a thousand battles, all blind folded.
I remember the fears that inhabited my consciousness, which paralyzed me like freezing, scolding water . . . and in that journey, I met a girl. The girl I once was, the girl that still awaits, the girl that still stands in time with tears in her eyes, and sorrow in her heart.
OUTRO:
I remember the sorrow, and I remember it blind fully.
I remember the fears, and I remember my sorrow.
I remember that girl, I embrace her, and she finally rests …
| | | |
Zahili González Zamora is a brilliant Cuban-born Afro Cuban jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, bandleader, arranger and educator. She is releasing a landmark new album, Overcoming.
Zahili was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, a port founded in 1784. The city is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the fertile agricultural district to the east and north, which produces sugarcane, fruit, rice, cattle, and a variety of other items. The city contains sugar refineries, sawmills, tanneries, canneries, and cigar factories.
She started playing piano at the age of six . . . practicing 10 hours a day and graduated from the National School of Music with a performance degree in classical music. Now, she feels most defined by her Cuban heritage and her status as an immigrant and newly confirmed citizen of the United States. Zahili’s passion for music has taken her to Canada, to South East Asia and now to the United States – a land of immigrants. She is always moving forward, guided and driven by her music and the need to grow as an artist and a person, to share her music and her love of life with others. She aspires to inspire—to be a messenger for a journey that is not only her own, but one that deeply resonates with others. She’s an artist who’s out of her comfort zone – her home – for the sake of her work. Her rich musical background, career experience and extraordinary improvisation skills render her a leader in the modern Latin jazz idiom and an influential, emulated musician.
Photo above by Irisley Luis.
For full bio click here:
| | |
Overcoming
Full Album Release date: FRI | OCT 24 | 2025
Entitled Overcoming, each track on the new album explores Zahili's deeply moving inner journeys through the challenges of “overcoming” her personal apprehensions that held her back from the renown she so deserves. "Rumination," Blissful Sorrow,” “Despair,” “Duality Embrace,” and finally, “Negra” take listeners inside the different pieces of her very personal odysseys, creating a beautiful and beguiling landscape into the deepest metamorphoses of her inner soul.
Recorded in New York City at the prestigious Power Station—once the key recording studio home for artists such as Springsteen, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan and Tony Bennett—the new album features a formidable cast of some of today’s jazz finest musicians: Sean Jones on flugelhorn, Pedrito Martinez on percussion, Keisel Jimenez on percussion, Yosvany Terry on sax, Gerson Lazo Quiroga on bass, Julian Miltenberger on drums and Yandy Garcia on drums.
| |
Zahili Zamora: Overcoming
THE BAND ON THE ALBUM:
| | |
SEAN JONES
flugelhorn
Sean Jones is an internationally recognized trumpet player and educator, currently holding the Richard & Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory. He is also Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz ensemble. Previously, Jones held the lead trumpet chair for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the SFJAZZ Collective and is now with the Baltimore Jazz Collective. He is featured on 3 Grammy® Award-nominated albums by Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson and Gerald Wilson.
| | |
PEDRITO MARTINEZ
percussion
“Pedrito is a genius . . . working with him has been a revelation to me.” - Wynton Marsalis
Pedro Pablo “Pedrito” Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba, in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Old Havana. Since settling in New York in 1998, Pedrito has recorded or performed with Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Paquito D’Rivera, Chucho Valdez, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Matthews, Jackson Browne, Elton John, James Taylor and Sting, and has contributed to well over 100 albums. A consummate master of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the batá drum, he is also the world’s first-call rumbero—playing, singing, and dancing with dozens of Cuban rumba groups and contributing to, or appearing in, several key films, including Calle 54 and Chico and Rita.
| | |
YOSVANY TERRY
saxophone
Since his arrival in New York in 1999,
Cuban saxophonist, percussionist
and composer Yosvany Terry has been making a difference in contemporary music. His innovative work, a unique confluence of Cuban roots music and jazz, “has helped redefine Latin jazz as
a complex new idiom."
-The New York Times
| | |
YANDY GARCIA PALACIO
drums
Yandy Garcia Palacio is a talented drummer from Cuba who has gained recognition for his skills and dedication to music. Born in Havana, Cuba in 2001, he started drumming at the young age of 9, even using car wheel rims due to limited resources. He began his formal music studies as a percussionist at the Manuel Saumell Music Conservatory. His passion for music led him to play for Alain Perez at age 12, who recognized his talent and invited him to tour Spain with his band
| | |
JULIAN MILTENBERGER
drums
Julian Miltenberger is a drummer and composer with roots in Philadelphia's swing, R&B, and avant-garde music traditions. Julian has sought to explore broader musical lineages throughout the Atlantic world with his work. At Harvard, Julian has deeply studied the relationship between folkloric Afro-Cuban drumming traditions and creative music in the USA under the guidance of his mentor Yosvany Terry.
| | |
KEISEL JIMENEZ
drums
Keisel Jiménez Leyva is an extremely versatile drummer
and percussionist specializing in timbal, congas and drum set.
Born in 1983 in Camagüey, Cuba, Jiménez has worked extensively as a session musician as well in live performeances and is especially known for his work with Alexander Abreu y Havana D'Primera, Isaac Delgado and Alain Perez.
| | |
GERSON LAZO QUIROGA
bass
Gerson Lazo-Quiroga is a Chilean-born bass player and recording engineer based in Boston. Awarded the Presidential Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, he studied Music Production & Engineering, Performance, and Jazz
Composition. Gerson has performed at esteemed venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, SFJAZZ, and at the Montreal, Monterey, San Jose, and Panama Jazz Festivals. He has collaborated with notable artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Regina Carter, Dianne Reeves, Jorge Luis Pacheco, Sean Jones, Yosvany Terry, and the Afro-Cuban band OKAN, with whom he appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. His recent work on New Standards Vol. 1 earned recognition from the Library of Congress and a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
| | |
ZAHILI GONZÁLEZ ZAMORA
LIVE ON GBH: April 30, 2024
| |
Sue Auclair: Marketing | Communications | Business Development | Entertainment
| | | | |
