RAMON TARANCO is a Maple Ontario-based, Cuban-Mexican composer & guitarist whose world beat fusion music runs the gamut from Afro-Cuban Jazz & Blues to Southern Rock & New Orleans Funk.
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BIOAfter experiencing seventeen and a half years of playing guitar professionally and teaching in New York City (from December 1994 to June 2012), Ramon now operates a music teaching studio in the heart of Maple Ontario. He continues to compose music and prepare for future performances.
NEW YORKSolo, duo & band performances in New York City include 8 concerts in the Guggenheim Museum's World Beat Jazz Series, "Celebrating the Diaspora: Strummin’ the Americas" for African-American Heritage Month @ Bronx Museum of Fine Arts, Liz Swados' opera "Missionaries" @ Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theater, Queens Museum of Art, Harborside Jazz Festival, Stephen D. Hassenfeld Children's Center (Manhattan), Visions Institute for the Blind (Manhattan), Connie Lekas School (Brooklyn), Hellenic Cultural Center (Astoria, Queens), Stony Brook U, Manhattanville C, Monroe C (Bronx), Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims (Brooklyn), Latino Heritage Month concert @ Javits Convention Center (Manhattan), Martin Luther King Jr birthday concert @ Newark Public Library, reBar Gastropub (Brooklyn), in NYC jazz & blues clubs ie The Groove, The Mozart Cafe, Izzy Bar, Finally Fred's, La Belle Epoque (Cabaret Nights, Jazz Brunches) and Cornelia Street Cafe (NYC Soul of the Blues Festival).
Soul of the Blues Festival poster designed by Rega - Ramon Taranco + His Havana Blues Revue @ The Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village, July 31st 2009
"Ramon Taranco + His Sugar Kings" playing at Finally Fred's in NYC, June 1st 2001
NYC Blues Harmonica & Guitar Duo: L-R Jasper McGruder & Ramon Taranco
RAMON TARANCO + HIS HAVANA BLUES REVUE (core band) L/R: Yahoteh Kokayi, Ramon Taranco, Judd Nielsen - August 16 2011, photo by Jimmy Wade (NYC)
Young Ramon Taranco in classical recital attire
TorontoRamon played blues, jazz and classical guitar in many of Toronto's premier venues including the Harbourfront Centre's Brigantine Room & Water's Edge Cafe, C'est What, The Riverboat, U of Toronto's Hart House Theatre, the Windsor Arms Hotel's Courtyard Cafe, Art Gallery of Ontario, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and in the Top O' the Senator Guitar Bar concert series at the Senator Hotel.
KUBA world beat trio: L-R Basi Mahlasela, Ramon Taranco, Memo Acevedo
TouringRamon toured in Western Canada & several times across Ontario (including Sudbury's Laurentian U.) giving concerts, lecture-recitals & guitar clinics.
performing in duo with violinist Igor Romanyk
GrantsTaranco received several arts grants: an Ontario Arts Council multicultural music recording grant, a composition grant from the Toronto Arts Council, another composition grant from the Ontario Arts Council, and a new talent recording grant from The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record (FACTOR). These grants made it possible for Ramon to continue recording songs for his first CD of original compositions, “Music From the Bermuda Triangle.” clinics.
"Motor" L-R: Ramon Taranco, Bruce Durling, Peter Mercer, Stephen Keen
teenage Ramon performing with "Motor"
Jimi Hendrix - Ramon's hero
Ramon riding down the main street of Maximo Gomez, Cuba
street band - Maximo Gomez, Cuba
concert poster designed by Rega
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concert poster designed by Rega
Ramon Taranco + His Havana Blues Revue @ The Groove in Greenwich Village, Feb 4 2012; L-R: Ramon Taranco (guitar), Cinque Ubangi Kemp (drums), Judd Nielsen (keyboard), Dave Cutler (bass); photo by Andrew Jack
L-R Jackie Richardson, Betty Richardson, Yohanna van der Kley & Liz Tilden - the vocal chorus in the studio recording "Sugar Cane Rider" & "Hard Work" for Ramon's Music From the Bermuda Triangle CD
RecordingsRamon's 2 CDs, Music From the Bermuda Triangle and The Adventures of Bo Segovia, present 16 of his organic and very natural eclectic compositions. Encompassing a wide variety of styles, they range from solo guitar (electric and acoustic) to full band.
Music From the Bermuda Triangle is primarily a world beat jazz album with some blues accents. The Adventures of Bo Segovia is mostly blues and funk. 
AirplayBlues, indie jazz and eclectic free form radio shows on public and commercial stations often play Ramon's Spirit of Muddy Waters and Ghost Dance tracks but all 16 tracks from his 2 CDs get regular airplay. To date, Ramon's music has received airplay on at least 350 stations in 50 countries around the globe. In the USA alone, we know of 131 stations across 41 states that play Ramon's music.
In February 2010, The Adventures of Bo Segovia CD was #3 on the Roots Music Report international top 100 jazz charts and #10 on the New York State top 100 roots artists (all genres) chart; where rating are tallied based on airplay on 500 affiliated stations worldwide. 
oil painting - portrait of Ramon Taranco by Mendelson Joe
"Two Cubans Named Moe" blues duo: Ramon Taranco (guitar) & Carlos del Junco (harmonica)
Film: Composer &
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