BIO

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Marel Hidalgo is a fifteen-year-old guitarist and multi instrumentalist from Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and was the leader and founder of "The Marel Hidalgo Band". He began learning music at the age of four, under the instruction of guitar teacher Jerry Franklin at Big Beat Music Studio in Neptune City and within a few months, he had his first presentation as a guest of renowned reggae artist Tim P-Dub (The Skalites, Damian Marley, Toots & The Maytals, The Wailers).

At the age of six, Marel formed his first band "Marel Hidalgo & Friends," a unique multicultural and multi-generational project that explored a wide variety of music genres, including classic rock, soul, blues, funk, reggae, country, bluegrass and Latin jazz. After his band’s debut in a packed local venue,  Marel started building a name in the Jersey Shore music scene. He has performed in numerous festivals such as the South Orange Blues Festival, South Mountain International Blues Festival, and The Denver Day Of Rock just to name a few, other venues in the tri-state area and The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in New York and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

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During his 11 year career as a musician, Marel has had the honor to be on stage with many talented musicians, such as jazz legends such as drummer Roger Humphries (Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver, Grant Green, Lee Morga, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton), bassist Dwayne Dolphin (Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine, Geri Allen, Nancy Wilson), alto saxophonist Tony Campbell (Roy Ayers, Dinah Washington, Sean Jones), Don Aliquo Sr. (Woody Herman, Joe Negri​, Tony Bennett), bassist Mike Griot (Casey Benjamin, Donald Harrison, Bobbi Humphrey, Russell Gunn,  Lauryn Hill, Omar Lye-Fook). 

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Marel continues his musical career as a jazz guitarist, mainly leading his own combos, as well performing as a solo jazz guitarist, playing jazz guitar in the style of jazz greats as Joe Pass, Ernest Ranglin, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, and Charlie Christian as well as playing Carribean jazz.

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