Efraim Trujillo

Efraïm Trujillo (born February 28, 1969) is an American award-winning jazz saxophonist, musician, composer, arranger, conductor, and bandleader currently living in the Netherlands. Over the years, he has been associated with various Dutch jazz/rock/fusion ensembles, including New Cool Collective Big Band, The Ploctones, Fra Fra Sound, The Preacher Men, and The Ob6sions.

Efraïm Trujillo was born on February 28, 1969, in Lynwood, California. He started playing the clarinet when he was just six. Shortly after, he began playing the saxophone. 

Since 1980, he has lived in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he studied music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the direction UM (performing musician), graduating in 1994. There, he studied with Tim Armacost (saxophone) and Misha Mengelberg (arranging), among others. In 2019, he received his Master's degree at the same institute. 

While attending Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Trujillo recorded his first CD Kalinha's Serenade with the Afro Caribbean Jazz band Fra Fra Sound, on Lucho label in the Netherlands (1992.) Their relationship continued for several years and between 1992 and 2013, Trujillo recorded a total of thirteen CDs with Fra Fra Sound, as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and producer.

Since 1996, Trujillo has been a member of the Dutch musical ensemble New Cool Collective Big Band with saxophonist Benjamin Herman, drummer Joost Kroon, percussionist Frank van Dok, keyboardist/arranger Willem Friede, percussionist Jos de Haas, bassist Leslie Lopez, and trumpeter David Rockefeller. He has performed on all of the group's albums, including the Edison Jazz Award-winning albums Big (1999) and New Cool Collective Featuring Thierno Koite (2017). In 2014, New Cool Collective collaborated with Guus Meeuwis on "Hollandse Meesters" (cover-versions of Dutch evergreens). They also worked with Mark Reilly of the band "Matt Bianco" on 2016's The Things You Love album.

Between 2005 and 2019, Trujillo was a member of the experimental jazz-rock band The Ploctones with guitarist Anton Goudsmit, bassist Jeroen Vierdag, and drummer Martijn Vink. For years, they performed at local and international festivals, including the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, the Caribbean Sea Jazz Festival in Aruba, the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in South Africa, the Bohemia Jazz Festival in the Czech Republic, and the Tokyo Jazz Festival in Japan. They recorded three albums with Challenge Records—050 (2009), 3...2...1... (2011), and Ploc (2013).

In 2016, Trujillo founded the jazz/blues/gospel trio The Preacher Men with organist Rob Mostert and drummer Chris Strik. The trio has performed at various jazz festivals such as Jazz in Duketown, Amersfoort Jazz Festival, LantarenVenster in Rotterdam, the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. They have recorded three albums so far—Preaching Out Loud! ‎(September 2016), Blue (August 2018), and Live at Bimhuis (December 2019). Blue was part of Trujillo's Master's research at Conservatorium van Amsterdam, titled "Into The Blue: Revealing the essence of a musical genre." In March 2019, he was awarded '9 with distinction' for his research. The album also won the Edison Audience Award on July 7, 2019.

In 2012/13, Trujillo was a member of The Ob6sions with Jeroen van Helsdingen (piano & keyboards), Sven Schuster(acoustic bass & bass guitar), and Victor de Boo (drums). Together, they worked for many years on Mijke van Wijk's NTR radio program Mijke's Middag Live, where he had the opportunity to play with, or arrange music for, such artists as Oleta Adams, Lonnie Smith, Gregory Porter, George Duke, and Chris Potter.

Since 2014, he has been the musical director, conductor, composer, and arranger of the Amsterdam Funk Orchestra, a big band with an extensive percussion section. With this orchestra, he performed twice in the television program De Wereld Draait Door.

Trujillo has also collaborated with the Metropole Orkest (2013) and Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (2017). In 2017 and 2018, he worked as an arranger for Nederlands Jeugd Jazz Orkest (Netherlands Youth Jazz Orchestra), collaborating with guitarist and composer Anton Goudsmit.

In 2019, Trujillo released the CD Fusionized on ZenneZ Records. The Line-up included Sebastiaan Cornelissen (drums), Damien Erskine (bass), Oliver Emmitt (trombone), Lourens Van Der Zwaag (trumpet), and Ruben De Ruiter (percussion).

Other works

• In 2017, Trujillo worked as a musical director with the theater company Urban Myth and director Jörgen Tjon A Fong.
• In 2017/18, he composed music for the track "Ontheemd" for the Moroccan singer Rajae El Mouhandiz.
• In 2015, accompanied by the Amsterdam Funk Orchestra, he worked on Denise Jannah's album Denise Jannah Sings Ella Fitzgerald.
• He has also worked as a duo with Colombian-Dutch pianist Tico Pierhagen.

• 2019: Winner Edison Award, with The Preacher Men, the Edison Audience Award for the album Blue.
• 2013: Nominated Edison Award, with the Ob6sions, the Edison Audience Award for the album First Takes.
• 2011: Nominated Edison Award, with The Ploctones, best jazz album for the national album 3...2...1...
• 2009: Nominated Edison Award, with The Ploctones, best jazz album nationally for the album 050.