Kiko Cornejo Jr.
Drums & Timbales

Kiko Cornejo Jr.'s love of music began at an early age. He remembers listening to his father, Kiko Sr., play timbales and vibes with various latin jazz groups around their hometown of San Diego. So naturally one of his earliest musical experiences was attempting to imitate what he saw and heard at his dad's gigs at home on the kitchen floor banging away on pots and pans.

At the age of 11 Kiko picked up the trumpet. But by the time he was 14 he realized that the drums were the only way to ROCK! and the drumset became his weapon of choice. As a student at St Augustine HS he played both trumpet and drums in the marching band. The summer before his senior year he was invited to attend Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), now IdyllwildArts, as a member of the International Chamber Orchestra, in which he played Tympani. The invitation was extended for the following school year so Kiko left San Diego and moved to the mountains to further his musical studies.

On his free time he began to study congas, and timbales; and so began his exploration of the wide world of percussive instruments. After graduating high school from ISOMATA Kiko attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where he continued his music education with an emphasis in multi-focus percussion and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1998.

Soon after he joined the East LA based band Quetzal and was a core member from Nov. 1998 to Jan 2005. During those years they recorded two albums for Vanguard Records. Sing the Real and later, Worksongs, produced by Gregg Landau and Steve Berlin consecutively.

Quetzal toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad to Japan and Mexico. Between 1996 and 2003 Kiko was a faculty member for Community Arts Partnership (CAP) at Plaza de la Raza and Amelia Earhart HS in 2004. Between 2000-2003 Kiko also taught for Los Angeles Center for Education Research (LACER). His most recent accomplishment is receiving a Journeyman in Recording Engineering in July 2005.

Kiko joined Makina Loca in July 2005 and is enjoying ROCKING crowds all over the world. Kiko plays DW Drums.