Renowned Musician Dr. Ed Calle Launches Pompano Beach Arts Virtual Music Series

Pompano Beach Cultural Affairs Department has introduced the Pompano Beach Arts Virtual Music Series featuring powerhouse performances by award-winning, globally-acclaimed artists.

The carefully curated series will provide a wealth of exciting music featuring a mix of genres including quintessential jazz, hip-swaying salsas and sambas, tropical influences, soul, Afro-Caribbean, pop, the Great American Song Book and much more. Grammy Award-winning flutist Nestor Torres will host the first three concerts and popular D.J. Tamara G. of WLYF 101.5 will host the remaining shows. Single concert tickets are $30, a 3-concert package is $75, and a 6-concert package is $120. Concerts can be viewed up to two weeks after the premiere date. Learn more at www.pompanobeacharts.org/programs/music-series and purchase tickets at www.ticketmaster.com.

Kicking off the series on March 20, 2021 is renowned saxophonist Dr. Ed Calle with the Mamblue Big Band, featuring an 18-piece band and vocalist Lisanne Lyon. The evening will be hosted by Nestor Torres.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela to Spanish parents - father Joaquin Calle from Madrid and mother Maria Begoña Calle from Barcelona - it was obvious from the very start that Ed was a gifted musician whose energetic, passionate, and distinct sound captured the attention of audiences and musicians alike. His teachers and schoolmates often suggested that Calle's sound is actually part of his DNA. Now, Calle can be heard on more than 1,200 albums, about 9,000 singles, and countless movie and television soundtracks both as a soloist, sideman, composer, arranger, conductor, and producer.

He appears on Grammy-award-winning albums by Frank Sinatra, Juan Luis Guerra, Arturo Sandoval, Juanes, Vicky Carr, Gloria Estefan, and Jon Secada. Calle has also recorded and performed around the world with music royalty including Phil Ramone, Tom Dowd, Carlos Santana, Eddie Money, Greg Allman, Emilio Estefan, Chick Corea, Michael and Randy Brecker, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Poncho Sanchez, Willy Chirino, John Patitucci, Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Shakira, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Spinners, Armando Manzanero, Barry Gibb, Oscar D'Leon, Dave Valentine, Lenny Kravitz, K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Gloria Estefan, Diego Torres, Julio Iglesias, David Bisbal, Michael Bolton, Will to Power, Luis Enrique, Bob James, Bobby Caldwell, Franco de Vita, Frankie Valli, Rihanna, Idina Menzel, Extreme, the Pet Shop Boys, George Clinton, Albita, Placido Domingo, Roberto Carlos, Ricky Martin, Busta Rhyme, JLo, Chayanne, and Vanessa Williams just to name a few.

Calle's television work includes an almost decade-long stint as saxophonist in the Sabado Gigante orchestra and appearances as a soloist with various artists on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, the Grammy Awards, and a host of international, national, and regional television programs and specials.

Dr. Ed Calle is a Latin Grammy Award winner for Best Instrumental Album (2015) with Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue and a five-time Grammy nominee. In addition to earning the 2015 Best Instrumental Album Latin Grammy for Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, Calle also garnered a 2014 Latin Grammy nomination and 2015 Grammy nomination as a member of the Afro-Cuban Funk Super group PALO for their album PALO! Live. Among his many solo recordings, Ed Calle Plays Santana earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2005. In the Zone features original jazz compositions and jazz standards and earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2007. His 2015 Latin Grammy winning solo release Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, is an Afro-Cuban jazz orchestral spectacular featuring more than 115 of the most influential jazz and studio musicians in the history of South Florida. The first studio record by the World Music 5, America, features chamber jazz orchestrations of original and classic music from the Americas with an all-star quintet that includes Negroni's Trio and violinist Federico Britos. Exploring the duo realm with his longtime friend and colleague Jose Negroni, Calle is also featured on the Latin Grammy Award nominated 2015 Sony Records release Negroni +9.

Solo tours and tours as featured soloist with Arturo Sandoval, Gloria Estefan, Raul DiBlasio, Billboard and Grammy winner Aymee Nuviola, and the legendary Charles Calello have taken Ed to Tokyo, Santo Domingo, San Antonio, El Salvador, Paraguay, New York, Austin, Tampa, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. Always busy in the studio, Calle's latest projects include solo performances with Sam Moore, Rudy Perez, Barry Gibb, Prince Royce, Perry Joslin, The South Florida Jazz Orchestra, 14 Jazz Orchestra, Mike Levine, Samuel Quiros and Alejandro Campos with the National Symphony of El Salvador, and Sergio Cuquejo with eh Paraguay National Symphony.

Besides being an internationally acclaimed jazz performer and prolific composer and arranger, Dr. Calle is in great demand as a jazz clinician and enjoys working with students. In addition to his full-time Professor of Music Business and Production duties at Miami Dade College, Calle conducts regular visits to South Florida public, private, and charter K-12 schools, Ed has served as a guest artist and clinician in Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Italy, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and throughout the United States with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Middle and High School Honors Jazz Ensembles, the Jazz Roots High School Honors Band, the Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute, the Long Island, New York School District Honors Jazz Ensembles, and at colleges including Brown University, the University of Miami, Washington State University, Brigham Young University, Temple College, the University of North Florida, the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida, Florida International University, Florida State College at Jacksonville, West Palm Beach Community College, Florida Atlantic University, and many more.