"Alex Acuña is a great spirit in the drumming community. His resume is deep, his talent is legendary and it's widely known that he is one of the nicest people on earth. We're thrilled to have him choose to play Sabian cymbals."

Sabian President Andy Zildjian adds:

"I'm really excited to have Alex as part of our family. Not only is he a great player, he's one of the greatest people I have ever met."

Although Sabian recently celebrated its 30-year anniversary, a look at the Canadian cymbal brand's artist roster reveals a long list of legendary artists whose influential careers began decades earlier.

This certainly applies to Alex Acuña, who at the age of 18 began his illustrious career playing in the great Cuban bandleader Perez Prado's band in 1964.

By 1974 Alex was living in Las Vegas playing with two of the biggest artists in the world, Elvis Presley and Diana Ross. One year later he had joined seminal jazz-fusion band Weather Report, playing on the groundbreaking albums 'Black Market' and 'Heavy Weather'.

Since then Alex's list of accomplishments and the list of artists he has supported are nothing short of breathtaking. U2, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, Sergio Mendes, Chick Corea, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Tito Puente are just a few names from a very long list.

Alex's South American and Caribbean roots and understanding of contemporary and classical music make him a complete and skilled master musician. He is also widely known as an educator, gifted teacher and clinician of drums and percussion, having recorded four solo instructional videos. Alex also provides seminars at universities such as UCLA, USC,CSUN, Berklee School of Music in Boston and other top international schools of music.