Sammy DeLeon y su Orquestra
Friday, June 27, 2025 6:30 pm
John Streeter Garden Amphitheater, 2122 Williams Road, Wooster, OH 44691
Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) and the Friends of the Secrest Arboretum continue their summer Music at the Arboretum concert series on Friday, June 27, 2025 at 6:30 pm with Sammy DeLeon y su Orquestra.
Sammy de León is one of the most recognized Latin bandleaders in Northern Ohio. He plays the timbales, a twin set of metal-encased, single-headed drums with a cowbell and a cymbal on the side. He began to play professionally at age 13 and has since played alongside the greatest of the genre: Tito Puente and Grán Combo de Puerto Rico, among others.
For the past decade, he has fronted his own band, Sammy De León y Su Orquesta, which includes well known pianist Jackie Warren and multiple horn players and singers. Playing a broad spectrum of Latin dance music styles, they have gained a large multi-cultural audience.
In the event of rain, the concert will be held at Fisher Auditorium, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH 44691. For more information call 419-853-6016.
About the Musicians
Sammy de León is one of the most recognized Latin bandleaders in Northern Ohio. He plays the timbales, a twin set of metal-encased, single-headed drums with a cowbell and a cymbal on the side. He began to play professionally at age 13 and has since played alongside the greatest of the genre: Tito Puente and Grán Combo de Puerto Rico, among others. Regarded as one of the most renowned percussionists of our time, he has transcended genre, style and class into a 40+ year musical career which revels in rich influences from the 70s to the present.
De León is the eighth child in a large Puerto Rican family of thirteen (8 girls and 5 boys) from Lorain. Neither of his parents were professional musicians, but Sammy remembers that his mother sang a around the house, and his father, who worked for Ford Motor Co. for 25 years, played the Puerto Rican cuatro during the traditional Christmas “parrandas.” Deleon has the only Latin band to perform for a full house at Severance Hall — to play this stage is equivalent to Carnegie Hall. Other venues include TRI-C Jazz Fest, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and La Guarapachanga in Pinar del Río (Cuba). Deleon was chosen to participate in the 1st Musician’s Seminar Orchestra, which would play the opening night at the World Salsa Congress in Los Angela, CA. Deleon was awarded the prestigious “TRI-C Latin Jazz of the Year” award joining the likes of Eddie Baccus, Greg Bandy, Kenny Davis, Bob McKee, Jackie Warren, Mark Mauldin, and Jamie Hadad. He has also received proclamations, lifetime achievement, humanitarian, and music awards. Recordings include Impacto Nuevo and Sammy Deleon Y Orquesta. Deleon teaches and regularly mentors aspiring percussionists in Latin rhythms. His friends jokingly call his band “Sammy Salsa College” because his band has been a rite of passage for many upcoming players.
Jackie Warren, pianist in several notable ensembles including the 3D Jazz Trio, Sammy DeLeon y su Orquesta, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, recently appeared Off-Broadway (New World Stages) with Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra in Maurice Hines’ critically acclaimed TAPPIN’ THROUGH LIFE. She has performed at The Blue Note, Lincoln Center, Dizzy’s, Smalls, Mezzrow, the Filmore International Keyboard Festival, and La Guarapachanga in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. Jackie received the 2018 Tri-C Jazz legend of the Year Award, and can be heard regularly at such noted Cleveland area venues as The Velvet Tango Room, Nighttown, the Bop Stop, Take 5, and BLU Jazz. She appears on numerous recordings, including “Near You” and “Live at the Wi-Fi Café” under her own name, “Steppin’ Out” (Jazz Heritage Orchestra), “Salsa con Sabor” (Sammy Deleon y su orquesta), “Midwest Coast” and “Into the Night” (Josh Rzepka.), “Strunkin’” (Leigh Pilzer), and the upcoming 2017 releases of “Oblivion” (Jackie Warren Trio) and “3Divas” (3Divas). Jackie is also an educator and clinician, and has taught jazz arranging and composition and coached jazz combos at Oberlin; she is currently on the Jazz Studies Faculty at Cuyahoga Community College, Metro Campus, where she coaches jazz ensembles, and teaches piano class and private lessons.