ABOUT

ROLAND CABEZAS | GUITARIST & SINGER

Over more than three decades, Roland has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Toni Braxton, Marcus Miller, Trilok Gurtu, Jan Garbarek, Shankar Mahadevan, Omar Sosa, NDR bigband, Deodato, Simon Phillips (TOTO), Gary Husband, Oumou Sangare, Horacio „El Negro“ Hernandez, Eumir Deodato, Colin Towns, Jaques Morelenbaum, João Bosco and many others.

After graduating in 1994 from GIT (Musicians Institute / Hollywood/Calif) with vocational honours, he quickly started to build a reputation back in Germany and beyond as a first-call guitarist.

Starting in 1999, the early 2000s saw Roland working with German pop act Orange Blue, recording guitars & bass on their platinum album „In Love With A Dream“, as well as co-writing and adding a second lead vocal to their Walt Disney release „Can Somebody Tell Me“ from the motion picture „Dinosaur“.

Since 2004, several releases for the West London-based NuJazz labels Papa Records and Defected Records feature his signature funk guitar riffs, produced by talented keyboarder/producer Simon Grey (former tour member of Incognito).

In 2006, he joined the touring band of Indian drum & percussion virtuoso and world music great Trilok Gurtu, formerly a member of world-fusion pioneers Oregon and the trio of guitar legend John McLaughlin, amongst many others.

During fall 2008, Roland recorded all guitars, add. percussion & vocals on the Trilok Gurtu album „massical“ (BHM 2009), everything tracked at his own studio.

Towards the end of 2009, he also had the pleasure of playing at a Warner Bros. showcase with multiple Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton, featuring him on acoustic guitar and teaming up with a renowned pianist & M.D. Rob Lewis.

The Trilok Gurtu w/ Simon Phillips + NDR bigband project was recorded in 2010 and released in Feb. 2011 to critical acclaim as „21 Spices“ (BirdJAM 2011), featuring Roland as a guest soloist alongside world music bass legend Michel Alibo.

Summer 2011 proved to be quite a highlight in his career, allowing him to play with bass legend Marcus Miller (with Trilok Gurtu & Band) at the „Festival Of The Arts“ (Gdansk/Poland) for an enthusiastic crowd.

Since 2013, Roland has been focusing more on his own career as an artist, occasionally taking on a few side projects like appearances on albums with JAZUL (produced by Nils Landgren / 2013), two JAZULDuo releases (2015 & 2018) and one album with acoustic Soul/Jazz-Trio SIDE BY SIDE (2017).

In 2017, he was invited once more by the NDR BigBand, this time to play a few shows with Brazilian MPB legend João Bosco (with drummer Kiko Freitas), including a worldwide streaming-concert.

Besides working as a sideman on many projects, his recently founded label & studio, ROLCAB MUSIC, is set to be a platform for creativity and to provide studio services, tracking, and remote sessions worldwide. Also being a respected guitar instructor (amongst others at HfMT – Hamburg College of Music), he spent the last few years focusing more on his own music, writing and producing original tracks.

**In 2025, he released his first solo album, BAMBÚ (© 2025 / RolCab Music), showcasing Roland’s broad musical spectrum, ranging from Fusion, R&B, and World Music to Pop.**

In early 2026, he received an endorsement from renowned acoustic amp manufacturer AER, alongside guitar virtuosos like Eric Johnson, Al Di Meola, and Tommy Emmanuel.