ArcoIris Sandoval was born to play jazz piano.
"My dad started me when I was 6 weeks old," Sandoval said during a coffee break near East Grant Road and North Campbell Avenue.
Her father would sit at the piano with his daughter hanging in a pouch on his chest. She felt and saw her father's hands move across the keyboard. They would repeat the exercise over and over again.
"He wanted me to mimic the motion," said Sandoval.
Sandoval has more than mimicked her father's piano playing. She has evolved into one of Tucson's best young jazz pianists, playing highly complicated jazz classics, polyrhythmic Afro-Cuban works and her own compositions.
The 22-year-old University of Arizona senior and graduate of Tucson Magnet High School will complete her musical studies this spring and venture off to what she hopes will be a successful professional career.
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But before she says goodbye, Sandoval still has plenty of music to play in Tucson.
She has been in the pit orchestra this week performing with the Broadway show "Legally Blonde," at the Tucson Music Hall. She has her senior recital Tuesday at UA's Crowder Hall and numerous jazz and salsa gigs around town.
Sandoval is a busy musician, and understandably so.
Since she was 12, Sandoval has performed professionally in Tucson. Some of her first shows were at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, where her father, José-Luis Sandoval, performed with his jazz group. Since then she has performed with numerous groups in clubs and resorts.
In addition, Sandoval plays trumpet and drums. She also composes music. In 2000 she performed her own composition with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra as part of its Young Composers Series.
Sandoval is completely focused on her music.
"She's hooked on it," said Sandoval's father, a native of Chihuahua, Mexico, who teaches language arts at Apollo Middle School and was his daughter's piano teacher until she enrolled at the UA.
While Sandoval is fully committed to jazz, she is classically trained. For her, there isn't much difference in playing Mozart or Thelonious Monk.
Jazz gives her freedom to improvise.
"I feel like I'm being lifted."
Ernesto "Neto" Portillo Jr. is editor of La Estrella de Tucsón. He can be contacted at 573-4187 or eportillo@azstarnet.com
