RODOLFO ZUNIGA - Drums / Percussion

Rodolfo Zuniga was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. In 1999 he moved to the United States and enrolled as a jazz performance major at Florida International University in Miami. He quickly earned the position of the drummer for the concert jazz band at FIU. With this group, Zuniga has performed along side such guest artists as, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Sam Rivers, Diego Urcola, and Kevin Mahogany. Rodolfo was the teaching assistant for the Jazz Program at FIU and graduated with a Masters Degree in the spring of 2005. While attending FIU he was heard by the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band, and was offered the position to tour the U.S. with the Ferguson Band.

A prolific composer and arranger, Zuniga is the leader of his own jazz ensemble – the Rodolfo Zuniga Quintet. Along with this, he is an active sideman, working with people like Gary Campbell, Michael Gerber, Alex Norris, Othello Molineaux and Ira Sullivan. He has also recorded and/or performed with such artists as John Fedchock, Dr. Billy Taylor, Jonathan Kreisberg, and Claudia Acuna. Most recently, he participated in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C in 2005. Rodolfo has also performed in venues which include the Jazz Cruise 2004, the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center and Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall. He has done clinics and concerts at Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional and the University of Minnesota.

From the very first moment that Rodolfo Zuniga played the music of Darryl Tookes he recognized a kindred spirit, a soul mate, a sacred marriage. Tookes immediately knew that he had encountered a rare drummer of extraordinary technique who played with absolute abandon, passion, sensitivity and power – the perfect complement to Tookes. This meeting of musical minds was key to the birth of the Darryl Tookes Band.