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Jazz pianist Bobby Enriquez was born in Bocolod City, Philippines as Roberto Delprado Yulo Enriquez.
His date of birth is May 20, 1943. He died August 6, 1996.
New York Times critic John S. Wilson wrote: "Mr. Enriquez has such a lively and attractive mixture of melodic appeal, rhythmic excitment and imaginative ability that he could be for the 1980s what Erroll Gardner was to the 1950's." He recorded a number of astonishing jazz albums for Crescendo Records in the 1980s and was known as "the Wildman" for his unpredictable yet engrossing piano style
Bobby Enriquez started playing piano at age 2 and began his professional career at age 12. He ran away from home at age 15 and for the next nine years toured Southeast Asia playing jazz piano. In 1967, he arrived in Los Angeles and played briefly for the The Sunspots, before moving to Hawaii where he became Don Ho's musical director. He also performed with Amapola Cabase. Alto saxophonist Richie Cole discovered him there and asked him to join his band. Enriquez participated in several Richie Cole albums in the 1980s, most notably Alive! at the Village Vanguard and the groundbreaking The Madman Meets The Wild Man. (Bobby Enriquez's name appears in the Internet Movie Database as playing a bartender in the 1988 movie Kansas (film), but this is a different artist.)
Bobby's children with Jeananne Cortez from the eldest - Melody, Melissa, Larissa, Robert Jean and Annalisa. He later remarried to Barbara Enriquez and have children named Alexander, Tatiana and John Robert who wasn't born yet when his father died last 1996. All his kids were gifted with music like their father. Bobby became a born-again Christian in 1993 and always tells everyone how God changed his life. He also played wonderful "jazz-style" hymns during church events in his local church in Bayonne, New Jersey.
Albums
- Wild Piano
- Live! in Tokyo
- The Wildman Returns
- The Prodigious Piano of Bobby Enriquez
- Andalucia/Incredible Jazz
References
- Scott Yanow, "Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years," Backbeat Books, October 2003)
- Dorothy Cordova, Stephen S. Fugita, Franklin Ng, Jane Singh, Hyung-chan, "Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary," Greenwood Press (December 30, 1999)
