Alejandro Neciosup Acuña (born December 12, 1944), known professionally as Alex Acuña, is a
Peruvian–American jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
drummer and percussionist.
He has also worked as an educator at
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
, and
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...
. LAMA,
Musicians Institute, USC, CSUN.
Background
Born in
Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands such as La Orquesta de los Hermanos Neciosup from the age of ten. Acuña then followed his brothers and moved to
Lima
Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of
Perez Prado, and in 1965 he moved to
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...
. In 1974 Acuña moved to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, working with artists such as
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
The Temptations, and
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...
, and the following year he joined the jazz-fusion group
Weather Report, appearing on the albums ''
Black Market
A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
'' and ''
Heavy Weather''. While in New York City, Acuña recorded several songs under
RCA records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
. Acuña decided to leave because of the genre limitations placed on him, in which
RCA records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
only had him play Latin music.
Acuña left Weather Report in 1978, and became a session musician in California, recording and playing live with (amongst many others)
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
,
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...
,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
,
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...
,
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...
,
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
, former Weather Report bandmates
Wayne Shorter and
Joe Zawinul,
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...
,
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
,
Antonio Carlos Jobim,
Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...
,
Roberta Flack
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, Folk music, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm ...
,
U2,
Al Jarreau
Alwin Lopez Jarreau (March 12, 1940 – February 12, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter. His 1981 album '' Breakin' Away'' spent two years on the ''Billboard'' 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and ...
and
Marcos Witt. He appears on recordings by musicians as culturally diverse as
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s.
Biography
Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...
,
Johnny Clegg,
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...
,
YellowJackets,
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...
,
Milton Nascimento,
Don Grusin,
Dave Grusin
Robert David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has composed many scores for feature films and television and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, incl ...
, The
Brecker Brothers,
Arturo Sandoval,
Vladislav Sendecki,
Paquito d'Rivera,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba,
Brad Mehldau
Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Mehldau studied music at The New School, touring and recording while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's quar ...
,
BoDeans
BoDeans is an American rock band formed in Waukesha, Wisconsin who came to prominence in the 1980s. The band's sound encompasses multiple rock genres, including roots rock, heartland rock, and alternative rock. The band's biggest hit to dat ...
,
Paco de Lucia,
John Patitucci,
Sadao Watanabe,
Lyle Mays
Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awar ...
,
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...
,
Sérgio Mendes,
Robbie Robertson
Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...
,
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
,
Bette Midler
Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...
Emiel van Egdom Jennifer Nettles,
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...
,
Seal and
Chris Botti
Christopher Stephen Botti ( ; born October 12, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer.
In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Pop Instrumental Album category, for the album Impressions ...
.
In the 1980s Acuña also recorded and toured with the Christian jazz band
Koinonia, which featured session musicians
Abraham Laboriel,
Justo Almario, Hadley Hockensmith, Harlan Rogers, and Bill Maxwell.
The Winans,
Andraé Crouch,
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
, He played on
Willy DeVille's ''
Crow Jane Alley'' album and in 1987 he teamed up with
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
's
TCB Band for the
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...
TV special "
A Black and White Night". He played percussion on
Blondie's number one hit "
The Tide Is High" and also recorded more than 300 movies under the direction of Lalo Schifrin, Dave Grusin,
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...
,
Bill Conti
William Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor. He is best known for his film scores, including ''Rocky'' (1976), '' Rocky II'' (1979), '' Rocky III'' (1982), '' Rocky V'' (1990), '' Rocky Balboa'' (2006), '' The Karat ...
,
James Horner
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American film composer. He worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside tr ...
,
James Newton Howard,
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
,
Alan Silvestri,
Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino ( , ; born October 10, 1967) is an American film, television, and video game score composer. He has received many accolades for his work, including an Academy Award for ''Up (2009 film), Up'' (2009), an Emmy Award, Emmy for Lo ...
, Christopher Beck,
Maurice Jarre,
Steve Jablonsky,
John Powell and
Heitor Pereira
Heitor Teixeira Pereira () (born November 29, 1960), or Heitor TP, is a Brazilian composer. In his career, Pereira has recorded with the band Simply Red and several famous musicians, such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, k.d. lang, Milton Nascimento, a ...
. In 1987, Acuña was summoned back to Perú by producer Ricardo Ghibellini to be the musical producer of Los Hijos del Sol, a group of Peruvians designed to promote Peruvian music worldwide.
Equipment and instruments
Gon Bops Percussion:
* Alex Acuña Special Edition Congas
* Alex Acuña Signature Timbales
* Alex Acuña Special Edition Cajon
* Alex Acuña Signature Cajon
* Alex Acuña Special Edition Bongos
* Alex Acuña Bells
* Alex Acuña "Conquistador" Timbale Sticks
Awards
* Best Latin/Brazilian Percussionist, Modern Drummer's Readers Poll.
References
External links
Alex Acuña at Drummerworld
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acuna, Alex
1944 births
Living people
Peruvian expatriates in the United States
Afro-Cuban jazz drummers
Peruvian jazz drummers
Peruvian percussionists
Cuban jazz percussionists
Cuban jazz drummers
Batá drummers
Bombo legüero players
Bongo players
Castanets players
Conga players
Djembe players
Güiro players
Maracas players
Tabla players
Tambourine players
Timbaleros
Weather Report members
Alessa Records artists
Losen Records artists
GRP All-Star Big Band members
Koinonia (band) members