Puerto Rico

“In almost 45 years of career I never found the consistency and versatility to achieve different music styles as with Gonzalez Reeds. Consistency because the percentage of playable and manageable, in each reeds box, is close to perfection, and versatility because from funk, pop-ballad, salsa to merengue, reggae, classic jazz I have found in Gonzalez Reeds a part of my essential instrumental team to the musical execution, Everything evolves  and Gonzalez Reeds has many different cuts, but my favorite is the Regular Cut”.

Graduated from the Free Music School. In 1986 he gets into Berklee College of Music from Boston where he studied with Bill Pierce and Andy Mcgee, besides taking masterclasses with Michael Brecker. Graduated in Composition from the Music Conservatory in Puerto Rico, he became the fourth student, in the history of the conservatory, to get said degree. He has a Master’s Degree in Musical Education from Cambridge College and post graduate studies in Music from Boston University. Furito has stood out in the execution of alto, tenor, soprano, baritone saxophones, the flute, the piccolo and the clarinet, besides being a composer and arranger. His musical versatility led him to play with hundreds of artists such as Arturo Sandoval, Giovanni Hidalgo, Celia Cruz, David Sánchez, Franco de Vita, Isabel Pantojas, Paloma San Basilio, Raphael, Roberto Carlos and Marco Antonio Solis, among many others. He is a voting member of the Latin and American Academy. From 1997 he has been the clarinetist of the Symphonic Orchestra from Puerto Rico.

From 1994 he has his own Jazz group that gathers some of the biggest Puerto Ricans musicians. He has played all over Puerto Rico; participated at the Michelob Jazz Fest and Heineken Jazz Fest; shared stage with Paquito D’ Rivera at the Curaçao Jazz Festival; was a guest artist, alongside his Quartet, at the V Jazz Festival from the Dominican Republic. Ríos created a successful concert series called Jazzeando en la Plaza that gathers some of the greatest Jazz musicians from Puerto Rico.

He was asked by Master Krzysztof Penderecki to compose a music piece, for the Casals Festival; it was performed by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet. “The Time 6:38”, his first album as a soloist, was released in 2001 and his second album “Cuatro al Jazz” was a success according to the press. In 2004 Furito was asked to compose two musical pieces for the Bronx Symphonic Orchestra. Later, in 2011, he was asked to orchestrate and perform his compositions at a historic Jazz concert with the Symphonic Orchestra from Puerto Rico. Furito, with his company Taller S&R, Inc., created, produced and directed the Boriquén Jazz Festival, from 2001 to 2007. During this last years he’s been the musical producer, director and composer of several CD’S and DVD’S requested by different Spanish companies.

“La Maestría” captures his initial musical passion: the salsa alongside the execution of the baritone saxophone. The album was chosen as the 8th (out of 20) best production of 2012 and the 1st in the Latin music category.

His production, “Standard Bomba” is a journey of two important genres that combine each other to create a production for the history.

Nowadays, Furito performs with his salsa orchestra “La Maestría”, with his Jazz group and with his Standard Bomba project.