Hugo Cruz and Caminos

Hugo Alexander Cruz Machado is a Cuban-born, award-winning, internationally renowned 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 fuse rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban, Cuban, and American jazz and funk styles in an original contemporary expression that honors traditional Cuban form. In 2022, Hugo Cruz and Caminos released their first original album Punto de Partida, composed of 8 original songs written by Hugo, and recorded by musicians from Pittsburgh and Cuba.

Caminos have made appearances at Fábrica de Artes in Havana, Cuba, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival 2019, First Night Pittsburgh 2020, City of Asylum, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Con Alma, The Frick Museum, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Westsylvania Jazz and Blues Festival, Washington and Jefferson College, the August Wilson Center, Chamber Music Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust events, among others.

While a resident of Cuba, Hugo toured regularly with Síntesis, a leading Afrocuban 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 de Superior de Arte, 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.