Hugo Cruz and Caminos

Hugo Alexander Cruz Machado is a Cuban-born, award winning, international drummer and composer who has performed in South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, and the United States.  Hugo is the leader of the group Caminos, who have made appearances at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival 2019, Fábrica de Artes in Havana, Cuba, First Night Pittsburgh 2020, City of Asylum, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust events, The Frick Museum, Con Alma, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh PlayHouse, University of Pittsburgh Afro Latinidad Festival 2022, and events for Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Equity Impact, Pittsburgh World Affairs Council, among others.  

Caminos fuse rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban, Cuban, and American music, in an original contemporary expression that honors traditional Cuban form. Hugo Cruz and Caminos released an album this February called Punto de Partida, featuring many notable musicians from Cuba and the U.S., recording eight of Hugo’s original compositions.  In May 2022 Caminos was the Jazz Band headliner for the Westsylvania Jazz and Blues Festival in Indiana PA. Caminos also has been performing a concert series called, The Voice of Drums, which brings many great drummers from the Pittsburgh area such: Roger Humphries, Poogie Bell, Tubby Daniels, Noel Quintana, Dennis Garden, Jeff Berman,  to join Camino’s way of expressing music.

While a resident of Cuba, Hugo toured regularly with Síntesis, a leading Afro Cuban rock-fusion group.  Hugo has performed in Havana’s largest jazz festival, Jazz Plaza, with acclaimed artists Dave Weckl and Victor Goines.  He is a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Artes, the leading arts university of Cuba, and in 2014, won the award as the “best drummer” at the international Festival del Tambor Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam in Havana, Cuba. 

Hugo has shared the stage and studio with many of Cuba’s leading musicians, such as La Trovuntivitis, Tony Guzmán y Su Poder Latino, Síntesis, Janio Abreu y Aire de Concierto, Adrian Berazain, Interactivo, Zule Guerra, Alberto Lescay y Formas, La Academia de Ruy López Nussa, Silvio Rodriguez, Amaury Perez, Banda de Concierto Municipal de La Habana,  Grupo Interactivo, Julito Padron, William Vivanco and Mayco de Alma.  Hugo performs and records with notable Pittsburgh artists, including Afro Yaqui Music Collective, Dr. James Johnson, Roger Humphries, Ernest McCarty Jr, Tubby Daniels, Dwayne Dolphin, Mark Strickland, Poogie Bell, Lou Stelute and Max Leake. Hugo also had performed at the Heinz Hall as a special guest of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Cruz is a drum teacher at the Afro American Music Institute and at Hope Academy Orchestra. He has been teaching workshops as a special guest at the University of Pittsburgh, and several youth and cultural organizations throughout the city.