Ayer Y Hoy

Born in 1974 in Cuba, Ivan "Melon" Lewis went on to receive his classical music training and graduated from the prestigious National School of Art (ENA) in Havana. His professional career begins at the age of 20, making several tours by Latin America, Europe, U.S. and Canada as well, being part of the well-known Cuban salsa singer Isaac Delgado's band. Based in Madrid, Spain since 1998, he has been very active, participating in several of the most remarkable jazz festivals around the world, like Montreux Jazz Festival, Jazz in Marciac, Montreal Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Festival de Jazz de Vitoria, Festival de Jazz Vol-Dam de Barcelona, Jazzuv Xalapa Festival de Jazz (Mexico), etc..., sharing stage with some of the most important jazz artists like Mulgrew Miller, Bebo Valde's, John Hicks, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jerry Gonza'lez, Buika, David Sa'nchez, or Wynton Marsalis, among many others. Since 2003, leads his quartet, which it comes appearing in several of the most important festivals in Spain and Europe. Since 2007 and until 2013, he maintained a special collaboration with the singer Buika, touring several times along U.S. (Town Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Disney Theater in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Oakland, etc...), Canada, Latin America and all Europe. In 2010 he released it's first album "Travesi'a" (Universal), counting for it with several of the most important musicians of international jazz scene. Parallelly it develops an active work facing recording collaborations with the most remarkably singers of the present Spanish musical scene. In 2013, Lewis was a Latin Grammy nominee for the recording of the year, as a producer for the track "La Nave Del Olvido" included in the Buika's album "La Noche Ma's Larga". Recently Ivan "Melon" Lewis and his quartet were performing at Yoshi's San Francisco, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, as part of the release of his second album "Ayer y Hoy".