Mili Bermejo

Mili Bermejo had already built a performance career when she issued her debut recording Ay Amor! in 1992, skillfully merging her Latin roots—paternal Mexican composer, maternal Argentinean singer and tango dancer—with a deep immersion in jazz. Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Mexico City, she began her formal studies in composition at Mexico’s National School of Music under noted Latin composer Julio Ernesto Estrada. During those student years she also encountered jazz, prompting her move to Boston, MA, where she enrolled at the Berklee School of Music and later joined its faculty after completing her degree in 1984. Alongside bassist and husband Dan Greenspan she documented Ay Amor! as well as the 1998 album Duo. In 1994 her Mili Bermejo Quartet issued Casa Corazon, drawing additional input from Boston’s modern creative jazz ensemble Orange Then Blue. The next year brought Identidad, whose range of influences traversed the breadth of Latin music. Closing the circle in 2000, the Mili Bermejo Sexteto, which included guitarist Claudio Ragazzi, released Pienso el Sur on Mexico’s Pentagrama record label.