Hugo Alexander Cruz Machado is a Cuban-born, award-winning, drummer and composer who has performed internationally, including South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, and the United States. Hugo is the leader of the jazz fusion music group Caminos, who have made appearances at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival 2019, Pittonkatonk music fest in Pittsburgh, Fábrica de Artes in Havana, Cuba, First Night Pittsburgh 2020, East Liverpool Jazz Festival, City of Asylum, The Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust events (Greer Cabaret Theater Backstage Bar, Trust Oasis), Pittsburgh Playhouse, The Frick Museum, the headliner of Indiana PA Jazz Festival, Con Alma, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Summer at the Station for The Equity Impact Center and Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation, Three Rivers Casino of Pittsburgh, Mattress Factory for the Pittsburgh Music Chamber event, Thunderbird Cafe’ and Music Hall, Jazz on the Steps, Back Yard Downtown of Pittsburgh, Monroeville Jazz Festival,

Caminos fuse rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban, Cuban, and American music, in an original contemporary expression that honors traditional Cuban form.

Hugo Cruz and Caminos released an album this February called Punto de Partida, featuring many notable musicians from Cuba and the U.S., recording eight of Hugo’s original compositions. In May 2022 Caminos was the Jazz Band headliner for the Westsylvania Jazz and Blues Festival in Indiana PA. Caminos also has been performing a concert series called, The Voice of Drums, which brings many great drummers from the Pittsburgh area to join Camino’s way of expressing music.

Hugo toured regularly with Síntesis, a leading Afro-Cuban rock-fusion group (when he resided in Cuba). Hugo has performed in Havana’s largest jazz festival, Jazz Plaza, with acclaimed artists Dave Weckl and Victor Goines. He is a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Artes, the leading university for the arts Cuba, and in 2014, won the award as the “best drummer” at the International Festival del Tambor Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam in Havana, Cuba.

Hugo has shared the stage and studio with many of Cuba’s leading musicians, including: La Trovuntivitis, Tony Guzmán y Su Poder Latino, Síntesis, Janio Abreu y Aire de Concierto, Adrian Berazain, Interactivo, Zule Guerra, Alberto Lescay y Formas, La Academia de Ruy López Nussa, Silvio Rodriguez, Amaury Perez, Banda de Concierto Municipal de La Habana, Grupo Interactivo, Julito Padron, William Vivanco and Mayco de Alma. Hugo performs and records with notable Pittsburgh artists, including Afro Yaqui Music Collective, Dr. James Johnson, Roger Humphries, Ernest McCarty Jr, Tubby Daniels, Dwayne Dolphin, Mark Strickland, Poogie Bell, Lou Stelute, Max Leake, Jeff Grubbs, Paul Thomson, Marty Ashby, Make Tomaro, Kenny Blake. Hugo also had performed at the Heinz Hall as a special guest of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Cruz is a drum teacher at the Afro-American Music Institute. He has been teaching workshops as a special guest at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Hope Academy Orchestra, and several youth and cultural organizations throughout the city.