Colombia-born reed and woodwind player, composer, arranger, and clinician Justo Almario is a musical bridge-builder and a progenitor of Latin jazz-fusion. Over the years he has combined South American, Latin, Afro-Cuban, and funk rhythms to create a distinctive music which he holds forth on his own recordings, and in his live and recorded appearances as an in-demand sideman. Though his career recording as a leader didn't begin until the release of 1981's Interlude (which is regarded as a jazz-funk classic), Almario had amassed a lifetime of professional playing experience with Duke Ellington's last band, and as a live sideman/soloist with Mongo Santamaria, Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, and Roy Ayers, among countless others. He has also registered hundreds of recording credits with pop musicians across a variety of genres including Master P, BeBe CeCe Winans, Chaka Khan, and Herb Alpert. Further, his playing was featured on a number of influential soundtracks for popular films in the '80s and '90s, including Dirty Dancing, Trading Places, Mambo Kings, and The Birdcage. 2005's Love Thy Neighbor, though released privately with his quartet, has become a Latin jazz cult classic. In 2020, Almario appeared as a soloist with Jose Rizo's Mongorama (a Mongo Santamaria tribute band) for the album Mariposas Cantan.

Almario was born in 1949 into a musical family in Sincelejo, Colombia and was raised in Medellin. He took up playing woodwinds as a child. Both his mother and father noticed his aptitude on flutes and clarinets; he picked up the saxophone in his teens. At 16 he was recruited by composer/arranger Jose Madrid to travel to the U.S. with his Cumbia Colombia band to showcase special arrangements of Colombian folk music. Two years later, on tour with another group in San Antonio, Texas, he met jazz pianist/educator Jorge Martinez Zapata, who encouraged him to apply for a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. He followed the older man's instructions and won the award. At Berklee he encountered Duke Ellington and worked with him shortly before the composer's death. It was also while at Berklee that Mongo Santamaria, looking for new players, heard him rehearsing and hired him on the spot. Almario's sax and flute solos can be heard in abundance on Santamaria's Vaya offerings Fuego (1973), Live at Yankee Stadium (1974), and Afro-Indio (1975). After working with Andy Harlow's band on 1975's El Campesino, Almario began to branch out. 1976 proved a watershed year for the young musician: His playing on Dom Santos' My Family (Minha Familia) was critically acclaimed and he joined Roy Ayers Ubiquity, replacing saxophonist Seldon Powell. Almario became a prime musical foil for Ayers, and worked not only on Vibrations, but also Everybody Loves the Sunshine, Lifeline, Starbooty, and the live Music of Many Colors with Fela Kuti (recorded in Africa). While working with Ayers, Almario found time to record with Jon Lucien on Premonition and on Harvey Mason's 1977 jazz-funk classic Rhythm of Life, as well as his last offering with Santamaria on 1980's Images.

Armed with this abundance of experience, Almario cut his debut leader date, Intuition, with Ayers as producer and arranger. Released by Uno Melodic Records, the set drew attention from DJs and some New York and Los Angeles critics, but it was primarily noticed by musicians who found its meld of disco, funk, Latin, and hard-bop jazz irresistible. Given his many other commitments, however, Almario wasn't able to properly promote the album by touring. He also played on Sylvia Striplin's Ayers-produced Give Me Your Love and toured with the vibraphonist. He joined old friend Abraham Laboriel's Koinonia to replace founding flutist John Phillips on 1983's More Than a Feelin' and migrated to Los Angeles to play with the group for several more albums and steady club gigs throughout the decade while also working on film scores and soundtracks.

In 1985, Almario issued his second album, the influential smooth jazz date Forever Friends on Capitol's Meadowlark imprint. Some of his Koinonia bandmates, including Laboriel (who arranged the date), Bill Maxwell, and Alex Acuna appeared, as did the Yellowjackets' Russell Ferrante. During the latter half of the '80s, Almario worked with the gospel-singing Winans family with singer Billy Mitchell and played on conguero Poncho Sanchez's Papa Gato. That same year he worked on Dianne Reeves' self-titled Blue Note debut and Patrice Rushen's Watch Out, and released his third album, Plumbline, with the same lineup as Forever Friends. Two years later, Almario released Family Time, his major-label debut on MCA. Produced and arranged by Jimmy Tanaka, its featured guests included Larry Carlton and Jimmy Haslip. That same year, as Koinonia was winding down, they issued a self-titled final offering, and Almario worked with Hermeto Pascoal on Brazilian Adventure.

The early '90s found Almario working frantically as a studio session player and live accompanist. In the first couple years of the decade he released Heritage, played with a large ensemble that included the core of his Koinonia bandmates and Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Silveira. He played on albums from artists like Luis Miguel and Edye Gorme to Lucien, Linda Ronstadt, and Sanchez, among others. In 1992, he joined Cedar Walton, Terrence Blanchard, and Joe Lovano, and became an integral part of the Newport Jazz Festival Tour, produced by George Wein. In 1993, he continued his session work, playing on an increasing number of recordings from Christian labels as well as jazz outings by Laboriel, Englebert Humperdinck's Quiereme Mucho, Randy Crawford's Don't Say It's Over, and Don Gruisin's Native Land. In 1994, two of the four Grammy-nominated albums Almario played on won in their respective categories: Andrae Crouch's Mercy, and Cachao’s Master Sessions, Vol. 1.

In the late '90s, Almario split his time working with his own band on 1995's Count Me In, with Brazilian arranger Marcos Ariel on Soul Song, with Latin artists ranging from Laboriel, Billy Cantos, Luis Conte, and Tania Maria, to smooth jazzers such as Herb Alpert, Scott Cossu, and Haslip. In 1999, in collaboration with Tolú and Acuna, he released Rumbero's Poetry. In 2002 he reteamed with the outfit for Bongó de Van Gogh. In 2004, he joined José Rizo's Jazz on the Latin Side All-Stars for The Last Bullfighter. Almario issued his critically acclaimed underground hit Love Thy Neighbor in 2005, which featured bassist Rene Camacho in its lineup. He concluded the decade working with Rizo on Tambolero and with Sergio Mendes on Bom Tempo.

Almario was a much-sought-after music instructor since moving to Los Angeles. He taught saxophone at Cal State from 2006 to 2008, as well as clinics throughout the United States, Sweden, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. In 2009 he joined the faculty of UCLA. He has also taught at the Henry Mancini Institute.

Almario's playing moved somewhat further afield during the century's second decade. He played on George Khan's Secrets from the Jazz Ghetto in 2010 and guested on spiritual jazz vocalist Dwight Trible's Cosmic in 2011. Also in 2011, he began his tenure with guitarist Kenny Burrell's band, appearing on the High Note albums Special Requests (And Other Favorites): Live at Catalinas and The Road to Love, then re-teamed with Mason for 2016's Recollection Echos. In 2018 he played on Pete Escovedo's celebrated Back to the Bay, and the following year on Oscar Hernández's and Alma Libre's Love the Moment. After touring with his own Afro-Latin jazz ensemble for the rest of 2019, he rejoined Rizo's band (by then a Santamaria tribute outfit called Mongorama) to release Mariposas Cantan in 2020. During the summer, the U.K.'s Expansion label released a deluxe vinyl reissue of Interlude. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi