Willie plays with a wide array of the Boston area's best jazz, gospel and R&B players. He works most frequetnly in trio and quartet settings, but can also be found working in duos and with quintets and larger ensembles. Depending on the occasion, different musicians are called. Some frequent collaborators include Doug Rich, Manny Santos, Stanley Swann, Jane Wang, Jonathan Singleton, David Hunte, David Clark, Josh Rosen, and Consuelo Candelaria.
Influences
On alto sax, Paul Desmond and Charlie Parker are huge, with Cannonball Adderly close behind. Tenor sax influences include John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Joshua Redman. Other writers and players who are extremely important to me are Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis, and of course, Duke has influenced us all!
Sounds Like
On a good day, my sound is my own, though (also on a good day) you would hear elements of Desmond, Parker, Monk, Coltrane and others informing my sound.
From such exotic locales as Singapore and Hawaii to major music festivals throughout North America, alto saxophonist Willie Sordillo’s music has
taken him around the world. With the band, Flor de Caña,which he co-founded and co-led, he is a three-time Boston Music Award winner. He
has seen an album he produced and which features his playing and compositions become a top 10 hit on the Billboard Magazine World Music
listing and heard one of his co-arrangements played on the ever popular
"ER" television program.
Willie began playing saxophone at the age of nine, studying first with Pop Bethel, a former member of the legendary John Philip Sousa Marching Band, and later with William Shadle, first clarinetist with the New Jersey Symphony. Years later, he pursued his love for jazz studying theory and technique with nationally acclaimed reed master Billy Novick. His early love of the playing of Paul Desmond, and later Stan Getz is evident in his warm, mellifluous tone and flowing lines, though his unique sound is inspired as well by the innovations of two other heroes, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. While able to burn on up-beat Latin jazz and be-bop tunes, Willie is equally at home with ballads and, either in support of or without a vocalist, The Great American Songbook.
Willie began playing jazz as a sophomore in high school when a couple of
upper classmen from the school big band invited him to join them in
forming a group modeled after the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Though the high
school quartet was formed to perform in a school talent show, the success
of that program led to Willie's first taste of performing in clubs and private parties, gigging both with this quartet and as a freelance player.
For some of these gigs where alcohol was served he was required to borrow an older musician's ABC card and play under an assumed name. The
experience proved invaluable under any name, and presaged his later decision to become a professional musician.
Taking a detour from his jazz trajectory, Willie became fascinated with
the North American folksong tradition while in college, which led to a
career as a folk performer and singer/songwriter after graduation. A
highly proficient acoustic guitarist and singer, Willie recorded two solo
albums for the historic Folkways label and toured nationally as a solo
artist for several years. In addition, he produced compilations for
Folkways and Flying Fish, Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men and
Feeding the Flame: Songs by Men to End AIDS, which contributed to the
pro-feminist dialogue on gender issues and helped raise funds to support AIDS services for minorities.
In 1984, following an invitation to participate in a cultural exchange
tour to Nicaragua, Willie helped found Flor de Caña, the Latin ensemble
which would be his home for the next 10 years. The band recorded two CDs
for Flying Fish and shared the stage with such notables as Tito Puente,
Rubén Blades, Poncho Sanchez, Richie Havens and Pete Seeger. The band
performed throughout North America and in Central America and the
Caribbean.
Since 1994, Willie has focused his energies on the New England music
scene. In addition to leading his own groups, Willie has been a featured
performer with the Latin jazz ensemble La Luna Quintet, with the bossa
nova group Sambossa, with vocalist/pianist Geoffrey Dana Hicks and with
the Mystic Chorale, the Mood Elevators, the Blue Suede Boppers, Chops
Turner, The Manny Santos Quintet, James Brown impersonator “JC”, and
Enfusion, among others. He also led a band featuring vocalist Wanetta
Jackson in front of 8000 people at the Amistad to Boston Celebration Day
at the Fleet Boston Pavilion in the fall of 2003.
Recent performances include the Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham; duo performances with pianist Jacqueline Schwab; AIDS Walk Boston; Latin Jazz concerts at the Barbieri School (co-leading a band with
world-renowned Latin Jazz stars Victor Mendoza and Eguie Castrillo),
family concerts at the Connolly Library in Jamaica Plain; a house party in
one of the storied mansions along Newport's famous Cliff Walk; Slade's;
Scullers; and The Charles River Creative Arts Program. Since September of
2005, Willie has been musical director of a weekly jazz worship service at
Old South Church on Copley Square, Boston. Willie has been a featured
in-studio guest on Worcester's WICN and WGBH's "Eric in the Evening".
A writer as well as a player, Willie's original compositions have been
reproduced in a number of magazines, songbooks and textbooks and he has
had the pleasure of hearing his songs recorded by other musicians. He has
composed theme music for four movies. Willie is often found in the
recording studio as a session musician and producer. Recordings featuring
his saxophone work include Muévete and Bailando en la muralla by Flor de
Caña, Cartagena, with the Geoffrey Hicks Quartet, Besame Mucho, a duo
session with Geoffrey Hicks, The Color of Grace and The Colors of Love by
Judy Hanlon, and Ben Tousley's recordings Open the Gates and Take My Hand. His most recent CD as a leader, echoing, features some of the Boston
area’s finest jazz musicians.
The Willie Sordillo Jazz Ensemble's Friend Space (Top 7)
THANK YOU 4 THE ADD MY COMPANY IS HURRICANE ENT. WE ARE AN INTERNET LABEL. I RAP SING AND PRODUCE. I HAVE AN ALBUM OUT ON ITUNES ZUNE AMAZON & OTHER INTERNET SITES I'M LOOKIN TO WORK WITH NEW UNSIGNED ARTIST. IF YOU NEED BEATS, FEATURES OR WANT TO SEND SOME MUSIC LET ME KNOW. PLEASE RATE MY MUSIC ON THOSE SITES OR JUST LEAVE A COMMENT I HAVE VIDEOS ON YOU TUBE ALSO. AND CAN SUPPORT MY ALBUM IF YOU CAN. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. THANKS AGAIN 4 YOUR FRIENDSHIP.
Thanks, Willie, for including us in your circle of cyberfriends. Lovely music you produce here. I lived in Holliston for a while after college (probably before you were born) and visited Framingham more than once...Vonnie from 2 Bits
