Kennedy Center honoree Arturo Sandoval on defecting from Cuba and how jazz music saved his life

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Kennedy Center honoree Arturo Sandoval is being recognized for his contribution to American culture through the performing arts.

The Cuban-born trumpeter said the road to this moment wasn't easy, but it was jazz music that helped save his life.

Sandoval grew up in poverty, in a house with a dirt floor. He left school at 10 years old to work.

He said a music academy was opened and that's when he fell in love with the trumpet, but after Cuba's communist revolution, he could only play what the government allowed. Jazz music even landed him in an unexpected place during his mandatory military service.

"They put me in jail for 3.5 months because I was listening to the voice of an enemy," he said. "They call it Yankee imperialism."

As depicted in "For Love, or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story," an HBO movie about his life starring Andy Garcia, Sandoval found a work around.

"At the end, what we want to play was jazz," he said.

How Sandoval's career unfolded A prominent figure in Sandoval's life was John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie. On the American trumpeter's first day visiting Havana, Sandoval offered to be his chauffeur, never mentioning that he also played trumpet — until Gillespie saw for himself.

"He opened his eye like this and then he said, 'What the heck is my driver doing with a trumpet?' Somebody said, 'No, Mr. Gillespie, he's a trumpeter,'" Sandoval said of the interaction.

The movie also reenacts his first encounter with his future wife, Marianela, who is still by his side 49 years later.

For 10 years, the Cuban government allowed Sandoval to tour overseas with Gillespie. In 1990, they made a one time exception for his wife and son to meet him in London.

"The next day, I went with Mr. Gillespie to the American embassy, asking for political asylum."

But the Cuban government found out. Sandoval said Gillespie called the White House, and just months later, he was on stage in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center Honors, paying tribute to Gillespie, the man who was not only a mentor, but helped to save his life.

"It's an incredible blessing to become a close friend to your hero," he said.

What the Kennedy Center honor and jazz means to Sandoval When asked what the Kennedy Center means to him through music, Sandoval played "God Bless America."

"I strongly believe the most important word is the word freedom."

He said only in the United States came the freedom to write 48 albums, win nearly a dozen Grammys and Latin Grammys, earn the Presidential Medal of Freedom and start a foundation for young musicians.

"The salt and pepper and salsa and everything, of jazz, the main ingredient is improvisation. For me, jazz is synonymous of freedom," he said.

It's a freedom he said he didn't have in Cuba before defecting in 1990.

"This kind of oppression, to really understand, you have to suffer in your blood."

More Adriana Diaz

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