Pablo Sanhueza

Pablo Sanhueza has been deemed as “Kansas City’s Heart & Soul of Latin Music” and is the region’s premier Salsa & Latin Jazz percussionist and bandleader. Since his arrival to Kansas City from Santiago, Chile in 1996 Pablo has dedicated his distinguished career to the music of the Latin American experience, working with three generations of musicians from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the American Southwest, Midwest, and Kansas City’s Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District.

As a performer, Sanhueza brings the charisma and precision of the Maestros of the Mambo and Big Band era. In 2019, prior to the global pandemic, Sanhueza presented his apprentice musicians and veteran collaboration project to an audience reach of nearly 40,000—in addition to hosting the longest running salsa & latin jazz nights in the Midwest at the Blue Room.

Sanhueza studied with Jesus Alfonso, Sandy Perez, (Muñequitos de matanzas), and has shared the stage with Poncho Sanchez, David Valentin, Titos Sompa, and toured Europe appearing at Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Red Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and Champs Elysees Paris, France with Bobby Watson.

In 2014, Sanhueza spent an immersion year in South America, studying Afro-Chilean & Afro-Andino folkloric music and dances. Since 2014 Sanhueza has returned multiple times to continue this artistic exchange with the musicians at the front line of this ongoing research and exchange through jazz and folk workshops and concerts across Chile & the United States.

In 2018, Sanhueza co-founded the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra/Latin Jazz Institute. The Latin Jazz Institute is the first performance & education non-profit in the Midwestern United States dedicated to Salsa, Latin Jazz, and the intersection of Latin American folkloric dance.

Representing latino leadership in the arts Sanhueza is a Missouri Arts Council Touring Artist and Missouri Humanities Council Speakers Bureau Member. In 2019, Sanhueza welcomed Pedrito Martinez to Kansas City for the historic Folly Jazz Series & Artist Talk. Sanhueza & KCLJO are endorsed by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz for cultural & education outreach in Chile and the Midwestern United States. Sanhueza is a master artist for the Missouri Traditional Arts Apprentice program and was the the featured jazz presenter at the Missouri Bi-Centennial Celebration in August 8, 2021. In 2021, Sanhueza’s Orchestra received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to support a commission and collaboration with NEA Jazz Master, pianist, composer, bandleader Maestro Eddie Palmieri. On April 23, 2022, Sanhueza was a featured artist at the Charles Mingus Centennial Jazz Festival in Nogales, Arizona.

Through these accomplishments and community involvement Sanhueza continues to distinguish himself as one of the foremost exponents of Latin American and Caribbean music across the Midwest and Southwest United States.

Pablo sees himself as a village musician whose presence and impact in the community is experienced through live performance and perpetuated through relationship building with the youth and local institutions. He is based in Kansas City and San Diego.

Pablo is currently taking bookings for the Latin Side of Charles Mingus project.