Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican-American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player. Ruiz began playing piano at the age of eight, and gigged with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Newman when he was young. Later, he was Roland Kirk's main pianist from 1974 to 1977, featuring on such records as "The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color" and "The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man". Wikipedia
By his early teens, Ruiz was working with a variety of Latin soul bands and, at age 14, recorded with a group called Ray Jay and the East Siders. www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=3731
Biography by Jason Ankeny Jazz pianist Hilton Ruiz was a musician of uncommon versatility, shuttling seamlessly between the complex improvisations of the avant-garde and the relentless rhythms of Afro-Cuban music. www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:yi0xlfje5cqy
New York (NY), USA - Famed Puerto Rican/New York composer, pianist and Jazz musician Hilton Ruiz passed away this morning at 3:51 a.m. at the East Jefferson General Hospital, in New Orleans, Louisiana. www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060606195526256
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Hilton Ruiz. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_Ruiz
