Justo Almario

Latin jazz flutist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator Justo Almario was born Justo Pastor Almario Gómez in Sincelejo, Colombia on February 18, 1949. Inspired by his musical family, he grew up playing various woodwind instruments. Moving to Medellin, Colombia when he was 11, he heard the music of Cannonball Adderley and his life was transformed. Also inspired by John Coltrane, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Colombian composer Antonio Maria Peñaloza, Justo Almario studied many instruments but focused on the alto saxophone. Soon, he was jamming with older musicians in the streets of Cuba. When he was 16, composer/arranger Jose Madrid recruited him into his Cumbia Colombia band for a U.S. tour. A few years later, while visiting Texas, jazz pianist Jorge Martinez Zapata encouraged him to apply for a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Once he was accepted into Berklee, he was discovered by Mongo Santamaria, who recruited him for his own band in the 1970s. While playing with Mongo Santamaria, he met Roy Ayers, who asked him to play on his album. This led to even more work with many other iconic musicians including Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Burrell, Herb Alpert, Placido Domingo and many others. Justo Almario’s first album as a leader was 1981’s Interlude. While not prolific as a band leader, many of his albums were well-received by critics including Forever Friends (1985), Family Time (1989), Heritage (1990), Count Me In (1995), and Love Thy Neighbor (2004). Justo Almario became the saxophone instructor for the Jazz Studies Program at UCLA in 2009.