Carlos Henriquez

Carlos Henriquez was born in 1979 in the Bronx, New York. He studied music at a young age, played guitar through junior high school, and took up the bass while enrolled in The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program. He entered LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts and was involved with the LaGuardia Concert Jazz Ensemble which went on to win first place in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival in 1996. In 1998, swiftly after high school, Henriquez joined the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, touring the world and featured on more than 25 albums. Henriquez has performed and recorded with artists including Chucho Valdes, Paco De Lucia, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Perez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the Marsalis Family, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Marc Anthony, and many others. He has been a member of the music faculty at Northwestern University School of Music since 2008 and was music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s cultural exchange with the Cuban Institute of Music with Chucho Valdes in 2010.

Carlos, since then has lead many Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts as a featured artist and has brought a new sound to the Organization with his duo musical visions. His collaboration with the great Ruben Blades in Nov 2014, gave the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orch a huge new outlook to playing Salsa/Latin Jazz. Henriquez is no stranger to the musical Afro dialect in Jazz and Latin styles. He continues to flourish as a great Bassist with 3 great projects as a leader. The Bronx Pyramid [ Blue Engine Release ], Dizzy Con Clave [ RodBros Release ], and the latest The South Bronx Story [ Tiger Turn Digital Release ] which is a bold multi-movement work of the social history of the South Bronx, and draws from Henriquez’s personal Puerto Rican heritage. Carlos, currently holds the Bass chair position with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.