Biography
Ed Calle is known for his extraordinary ability to sight-read, interpret, and perform virtually any musical style. Throughout the globe, his peers and colleagues often laud his versatility. For example, while outside the Blue Note in New York City sharing some time with his mentor and friend Michael Brecker, fans asked Michael about being the most recorded saxophonist in history. Brecker smiled, looked at his pupil, and stated, “Thanks, but Ed’s probably on as many or more records. He records a lot for South American artists and we don’t see a lot of those credits. Ed is likely the most versatile saxophonist on the planet.” Longtime mentor and collaborator Arturo Sandoval succinctly affirms, "We call Calle – the monster."
Born in Caracas, Venezuela to Spanish parents – father Joaquin Calle from Madrid and mother Maria Begoña Calle from Barcelona – it was obvious from the very start that Ed was a gifted musician whose energetic, passionate, and distinct sound captured the attention of audiences and musicians alike. His teachers and schoolmates often suggested that Calle’s sound is actually part of his DNA. Now, Calle can be heard on more than 1,700 albums, some 10,000 singles, and countless movie and television soundtracks both as a soloist, sideman, composer, arranger, conductor, and producer. He appears on Grammy® award-winning albums by Frank Sinatra, Juan Luis Guerra, Arturo Sandoval, Juanes, Vicky Carr, Gloria Estefan, The Wailers, and Jon Secada. Calle has also recorded and performed around the world with music royalty including Phil Ramone, Tom Dowd, Carlos Santana, Eddie Money, Greg Allman, Emilio Estefan, Chick Corea; Michael and Randy Brecker, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Poncho Sanchez, Willy Chirino, John Patitucci, Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Shakira, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Spinners, Armando Manzanero, Barry Gibb, Oscar D’Leon, Dave Valentine, Lenny Kravitz, K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Gloria Estefan, Diego Torres, Julio Iglesias, David Bisbal, Michael Bolton, Will to Power, Luis Enrique, Bob James, Bobby Caldwell, Franco de Vita, Frankie Valli, Rihanna, Idina Menzel, Extreme, the Pet Shop Boys, George Clinton, Albita, Placido Domingo, Roberto Carlos, Ricky Martin, Busta Rhyme, JLo, Chayanne, and Vanessa Williams just to name a few. Calle's television work includes an almost decade-long stint as a saxophonist in the Sabado Gigante orchestra and appearances as a soloist with various artists on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, the Grammy® Awards, and a host of international, national, and regional television programs and specials.
Dr. Ed Calle is a Latin Grammy® Award winner for Best Instrumental Album (2015) with Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue and a five-time Grammy® nominee. In addition to earning the 2015 Best Instrumental Album Latin Grammy® for Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, Calle also garnered a 2014 Latin Grammy® nomination and 2015 Grammy® nomination as a member of the Afro-Cuban Funk Supergroup PALO for their album PALO! Live. Among his many solo recordings, Ed Calle Plays Santana earned a Latin Grammy® nomination in 2005. In the Zone features original jazz compositions and jazz standards and earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2007. His 2015 Latin Grammy® winning solo release Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, is an Afro-Cuban jazz orchestral spectacular featuring more than 115 of the most influential jazz and studio musicians in the history of South Florida. The first studio record by the World Music 5, America, features chamber jazz orchestrations of original and classic music from the Americas with an all-star quintet that includes Negroni's Trio and violinist Federico Britos. Exploring the duo realm with his longtime friend and colleague Jose Negroni, Calle is also featured on the Latin Grammy® Award-nominated 2015 Sony Records release Negroni +9.
Produced, written, arranged, and recorded by the legendary Hal Batt and Mike Lewis, Soulful Nights is Calle's newest release. Released on August 15, 2022, Soulful Nights, features a blend of classic cover tunes and new originals from Mike Lewis. Soulful Nights features superstars and longtime friends KC (KC and The Sunshine Band) and Jon Secada. On Soulful Nights, Jon Secada mesmerizes in both English and Spanish. KC's stellar rendition of the Marvin Gaye classic Inner City Blues is a hypnotic blend of soul and groove.
Desert Rose is the first single and is climbing the radio and playlist charts. For the first time in Calle's career, Afterhours Music has produced a music video for Desert Rose that can be viewed here. The release of Soulful Nights is creating welcomed opportunities for tours, live concerts, and media appearances that allow Ed to share music and time with fans and audiences around the world.
Life on the road is an important part of an artist's life. Solo tours and tours as a featured soloist with Arturo Sandoval, Gloria Estefan, Raul DiBlasio, Billboard and Grammy winner Aymee Nuviola, and the legendary Charles Calello have taken Ed around the globe to Tokyo, Santo Domingo, San Antonio, El Salvador, Paraguay, New York, Austin, Tampa, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. Always busy in the studio, Calle's latest projects include solo performances with Sam Moore, Rudy Perez, Barry Gibb, Prince Royce, Perry Joslin, The South Florida Jazz Orchestra, 14 Jazz Orchestra, Mike Levine; Samuel Quiros and Alejandro Campos with the National Symphony of El Salvador, and Sergio Cuquejo with the Paraguay National Symphony. The latest releases by Ed Calle include the critically acclaimed Ed Calle 360 and Ed Calle Plays Jobim. Recorded and filmed in front of a live audience, Ed Calle & Rick Margitza Live at the Open Stage Club features longtime colleagues, friends, and renowned saxophone giants Ed Calle and Rick Margitza, John Hart (guitar), Chuck Bergeron (bass), John Yarling (drums), and special guests - The Miami Saxophone Quartet.
Besides being an internationally acclaimed jazz performer and prolific composer and arranger, Dr. Calle is in great demand as a jazz clinician and enjoys working with students. In addition to his full-time Professor of Music Business and Production duties at Miami Dade College, Calle conducts regular visits to South Florida public, private, and charter K-12 schools, Ed has served as a guest artist and clinician in Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Italy, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and throughout the United States with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Middle and High School Honors Jazz Ensembles, the Jazz Roots High School Honors Band, the Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute, the Long Island, New York School District Honors Jazz Ensembles, and at colleges including Brown University, the University of Miami, Washington State University, Brigham Young University, Temple College, the University of North Florida, the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida, Florida International University, Florida State College at Jacksonville, West Palm Beach Community College, Florida Atlantic University, and many more.
At the annual Midwest Convention in Chicago and along with the legendary David Letterman band alumnus Tom "Bones" Malone, Ed Calle mentored Miami-Dade County public school students. In December 2015, Malone and Calle served as featured guest artists with the award-winning Glades Middle School jazz band directed by Erich Rivero. In January 2016, Calle will perform in Louisville, Kentucky at the Jazz Educators Network Convention with the Next Generation Jazz Ensemble, the Miami Saxophone Quartet, and the World Music 5. Dr. Calle served as a guest clinician and artist for the Florida Music Educator's Association (FMEA) 2018 All-State High School Jazz Band in Tampa, Florida.
From the White House lawn to many of the great concert halls around the globe, Calle’s compositions and arrangements are performed and recorded regularly by a myriad of ensembles ranging from chamber groups to orchestras. His original saxophone quartet compositions including The Iberia Suite, Rice & Beans, Spunky, Dancing on a Cloud, and Thinking of You, and his sax quartet arrangement of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are in great demand and have been performed and recorded by numerous international sax quartets including the Miami Saxophone Quartet, various U.S. Armed Forces saxophone quartets and jazz bands including the Navy Commodores, the BLAST Saxophone Quartet (Netherlands), the Choudhary Saxophone Quartet, the Dave Fletcher Saxophone Quartet, the Ireland Sax Quartet, the Horgeshimer Saxophone Quartet, the Gallagher Saxophone Quartet, the Alesi Saxophone Quartet, the Eastman Saxophone Quartet, the Red Line Sax Quartet, the Morehead State University Sax Quartet, the Ohio University School of Music Sax Quartet, and the Coral Reef Sax Quartet. In 2014, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors featuring Arturo Sandoval performed Calle’s Afro-Cuban big band jazz arrangement of Jingle Bells at the White House Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Calle's widely popular arrangement of the theme from I Love Lucy - recorded on the renowned Concord Records CD/DVD Jam Miami featuring Chick Corea, Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Sheila E., Poncho Sanchez, and a host of legendary Latin jazz giants - has been performed by innumerable jazz ensembles throughout the world.
Ed and Sari Calle live with their three children in South Florida where Ed serves as a tenured full Professor of Music Business and Production at Miami Dade College. Calle has produced and released more than 12 solo albums, owns and operates 36th Street Music Records and Publishing, One-Take Recording Studios, and leads a variety of ensembles including Dr. Ed Calle & Mamblue, Ed Calle & Strings, Ed Calle & DoubleTalk, and his acoustic quartet. In addition to his busy touring schedule as a solo artist, Calle tours the globe as the featured soloist with the Afro-Cuban Funk Supergroup PALO, the Miami Saxophone Quartet, the World Music 5, the 14 Jazz Orchestra, and the Jaco Pastorious Word of Mouth Revisited Big Band, Calle is also an in-demand product endorser and artist with D’Addario Woodwind Reeds, Selmer Paris Saxophones, MacSax Saxophones and mouthpieces, Jody Jazz mouthpieces, DynaSample Xpression Performance Synth, Coleman Audio Red 48, and AMT microphones.
On his 50th birthday, August 10, 2010, Calle kept his promise to his parents and earned a Doctor of Higher Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University where he graduated with a perfect 4.0 average. In addition to his passion for and study of music, Ed is a lifelong student of mathematics who is frequently asked to deliver lectures exploring the relationship between music and mathematics. Dr. Calle delivered the keynote address at the MAC^3 conference in 2007 and presents lectures on the topic at many schools and universities around the globe. Dr. Calle's published doctoral dissertation, Remedial Mathematics: Online vs. Face-to-Face: Comparison of Online and Traditional Community College Math Remediation, addresses one of the greatest educational challenges facing America in the 21st century.
Often acknowledged for his musical, academic, and civic contributions and accomplishments, Dr. Calle was awarded the 2015 Miami-Dade County Mayor’s Medal, named www.facultyawards.org 2014 Outstanding Professor at Miami Dade College, and 2014 United Teachers of Dade Champion of Education for Arts and Entertainment. Following in the footsteps of legends like Desi Arnaz, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Arturo Sandoval, Victor Manuelle, Willy Chirino, and Pitbull, Dr. Ed Calle was named 2013 King of Carnival Miami. In 2000, Calle served as musical director for the Grammy Awards broadcast of the Tito Puente tribute featuring Celia Cruz, Santana, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, and an all-star band. Calle also served as the musical director for the very first Latin Grammy Awards broadcast from Miami, Florida. One of his most cherished honors, Calle performed at the 2005 Latin Grammy Awards broadcast as a legend of Latin Jazz alongside Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Arturo Sandoval, Bebo Valdes, Generoso Jiménez, and a host of other legendary Latin jazz masters. Ed Calle is a nominee for the 2018 Florida Music Hall of Fame along with music royalty including Emilio Estefan, Creed, "Soulman" Sam Moore, Jimmy Buffet, Barry Gibb, Jaco Pastorious, Peter Graves, and Dana Paul.