Maite Hontelé (CO)

About

Dutch trumpeter Maite Hontelé built her career around salsa and Latin jazz, spending over a decade living in Colombia after a 2008 performance at the Medellín jazz festival convinced her to make the move. She formed her own band there, toured Europe, and collaborated with heavyweights like singer Oscar D'León and Rubén Blades, the Panamanian singer and activist. Her album Déjame Así landed a Latin Grammy nomination, and her 2018 release Cuba Linda, featuring Gilberto Santa Rosa and Orquesta Aragón, earned her a second nomination in the same category. After stepping back from performing around 2019 and 2020, Hontelé shifted gears on home turf, serving as artistic director of the Music Meeting Festival and later the Nationaal Jeugd Jazz Orkest. That Jeugd Jazz chapter brought her back to the stage, including a show at North Sea Jazz. Most recently she released Havana alongside Cuban jazz pianist Ramón Valle, playing flugelhorn this time, and NRC included it in their list of the 25 best Dutch albums of 2025.