Media & Booking Materials
Bios, hi-res photography, video, past venues, and a downloadable press kit.
Performance Reel
Live from The Beverly Hilton · · 2:37
Luis Giraldo is an international jazz vocalist and pianist who records for Cellar Music. He sings in English and Spanish, and his thirty-five years on stage have taken him from the Beverly Hilton to the Java Jazz Festival.
Luis Giraldo is a bilingual jazz vocalist and pianist whose repertoire of Great American Songbook standards, Bossa Nova, and modern swing has carried velvet phrasing across cruise lines, festivals, and concert stages worldwide. He is based in Vancouver and performs in English and Spanish. His thirty-five years on stage run from Bogotá rock bands and a touring stint with Shakira to four studio albums as a vocal jazz artist. The two most recent, Ready, Willing & Able and I’m Old Fashioned, were recorded at the Rudy Van Gelder Studio for Cellar Music with New York's top jazz sidemen.
Luis Giraldo is a bilingual jazz vocalist and pianist based in Vancouver, performing in English and Spanish on cruise lines, festival stages, and concert halls across the Americas.
Born in Montreal and raised in Bogotá, Luis came to jazz by a route few singers can claim. He played in a Colombian high-school rock band in 1991 and in the Colombian presidential marching band. He recorded and performed alongside Andrés Cepeda, Ana y Jaime, and Piyo Jaramillo of Compañía Ilimitada, and in the late 90s he toured Latin America with Poligamia, a rock band signed to Sony Music. He then spent a stint as keyboardist and backing vocalist for Shakira, playing more than 40 shows across North, Central, and South America. The cruise ship rooms where he later played jazz standards every night drew the line in the sand, and after that the conversion was complete.
Since 2002, Luis has released four studio albums as a vocal jazz artist. The two most recent, Ready, Willing & Able (2023) and I’m Old Fashioned (2024), were co-produced with Cory Weeds at the Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, the same room where John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk recorded. His New York sidemen on those sessions included Ben Paterson, Chris Flory, Ed Cherry, Neal Miner, and Jason Tiemann.
His repertoire pairs the Great American Songbook and modern swing with Bossa Nova and Latin standards, drawing on his Colombian roots to land equally in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking rooms. He has performed on Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, and Disney cruise lines, and continues to lead his own band in the Greater Vancouver area. Thirty-five years into his career, he is available for festivals, cruise lines, hotel residencies, awards shows, corporate engagements, and private events worldwide.
Two new sessions recorded in Chicago, both led with pianist and organist Ben Paterson.
Titles and release dates announced shortly.
Plus hundreds of private events, weddings, corporate galas, and intimate engagements across a thirty-five-year career.
High-resolution press images available on request. Email agent@luisgiraldo.com with the use case (poster, programme, web) and we’ll send a curated set within one business day.
Jazz Standards, Brazilian / Bossa Nova, Boleros, Pop & Show Tunes, Christmas. Sight-readable charts available for any configuration.
Signature Programmes
Programme i.
A full-evening concert, sequenced and arranged. Solo piano-vocal at the low end, full big band at the top, with trio, quartet, and quintet configurations in between. Great American Songbook standards, golden-age pop, swing-era favourites, Bossa Nova, romantic ballads, and bilingual repertoire in English and Spanish.
Programme ii.
An adults-only sensory experience pairing premium spirits with intimate piano arrangements. Luis is both jazz player and bourbon enthusiast, discussing aging, flavor profiles, and the unexpected parallels between distillation and phrasing while performing live at the piano. Designed as an educational, ticketed format rather than background music with drinks.
Programme iii.
A host-led specialty-dining format for jazz enthusiasts. Luis sits with the table as its conversational guide, sharing stories from a career that includes recording at Van Gelder Studio and touring with Shakira. The talk also turns to Jobim’s influence, the evolution from swing to contemporary jazz, and the artistry behind records the guests already know.
Programme iv.
Luis joins your house band for an evening in a lounge or specialty venue. He is comfortable sitting in as a guest, bringing his own repertoire and improvisational flexibility while leaving the regulars’ set intact.
Programme v.
A month in your lounge, programmed with the same care Luis gives a concert series. He knows the rhythm of a hotel room from the inside, having held the house piano chair at Vancouver’s Four Seasons and the Wedgewood Hotel. He can perform solo at the piano, entirely self-contained, or sing in front of a local trio of piano, bass, and drums, which can be your own house musicians. Every arrangement comes from his own library of sight-readable charts, so the band arrives at the first rehearsal ready to play. Over the month he draws on more than 600 titles, moving between the Great American Songbook, Bossa Nova, modern swing, romantic ballads, Latin American boleros, and torch songs. He talks with the audience in both English and Spanish, which suits hotels whose guests come from many different countries.
Why Luis
Van Gelder Studio sessions and a touring history with Shakira sit alongside a repertoire that travels across generations and languages, which is useful background when programming for mixed audiences.
The Jazz & Bourbon and Aficionado’s Dinner programmes treat the set as a curated experience rather than background music. That helps when an enrichment or ticketed slot is on the schedule.
Five programme formats and a library of more than 600 titles let programmers fill a 7-day voyage without repeating a setlist. The same depth carries a month-long hotel residency, where every night of lounge sets can feel freshly planned.
Direct collaboration with entertainment directors, and with food and beverage teams on hotel engagements. Engraved, sight-readable charts. Clear contracts.
Configurations
Professionally engraved charts. Clearly marked. Sight-readable. Whether self-contained or in full collaboration with your house band, every configuration is rehearsal-ready on arrival.
Repertoire
Set lists are tailored to the route, the room, and the audience. Bilingual transitions feel natural, never forced.
Ideal Sailing & Engagement Profiles
Technical & Operations