Trumpeter/flugelhornist Sal Cracchiolo and vocalist Melanie Jackson return to Steamers this Wednesday. Appearing with them are Otmaro Ruiz on piano, Rene Camacho on bass, Kendall Kay on drums, and Jose “Papo” Rodriguez on percussion. Sal and Melanie came together because of their love of jazz, Latin jazz, and Brazilian music. This group is their baby and the music has been carefully chosen and crafted to create moods of love, laughter and fun - all served up just for jazz lovers.
An accomplished musician, Sal has performed on numerous albums, including 16 albums with the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, 1 album with jazz legend Bobby Shew, and 1 album with Brian Setzer’s Big Band, to mention a few. He has also toured worldwide with Poncho Sanchez for 16 years. He has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, Stanley Turentine, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Gary Foster, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie Harris, and Celia Cruz. He has performed for and with these artists at the Monterey, Playboy, Concord, and Nice Jazz Festivals plus many others throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America and Japan. In addition, he has played on such movie soundtracks as “The Mambo Kings”, “The HBO Cinema Latin Session”, and “A Million to Juan”.
Melanie was rated L.A.’s fourth best local jazz act by Music Connection magazine in 1979. In 1980 she moved to New York and sang with various big bands, performing at “The Cookery” and “Micheal’s Pub”. Later she moved back to L.A. and headed for the studio, recording commercials and network promos for the likes of Budweiser, Wonderbread, Mattel, Toyota, NBC, Disney, CBS, Fox, and Warner Bros. She has toured as a background vocalist throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Japan, working with such acts as REO Speedwagon, Latin artist Jose Luis Rodriguez on CBS International, and Leonard Cohen.