It's not uncommon for musicians to lend their name and/or time to charitable causes. Sometimes these people even have a second life as a hands-on leader of the organization – Bob Geldof comes to mind here. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, tend to lean more toward a grass-roots kind of thing, such as starting schools (see the Ralph Alessi profile) or mentoring young musicians.

But in looking at Danilo Pérez, you wonder where he finds the energy: The Panamanian pianist's current résumé includes being artistic director of the brand-new Berklee Global Jazz Institute, founder and president of the Panama Jazz Festival, global ambassador for UNICEF and head of the Fundación Danilo Pérez. Never mind the fact that he's a working musician leading bands and playing with, among others, Wayne Shorter's landmark acoustic quartet. All these non-music activities are extremely valid, but one could accuse Pérez of being a little ADD.

"I do all the extra activities because I enjoy them," Pérez recently explained via e-mail. "Music has more than one dimension, and performing without living life to the fullest is like playing piano in front of a wall, the sound you make hits the wall then it goes back to you, and that's it, nowhere else."

Pérez concedes that he struggles to find time to do all the things he wants to do, but he benefits by the fact that he only needs about 4-6 hours a sleep per night. Moreover like other polymaths, he sees the desire for social change connected to his desire to play, regarding both music and social activism as things worth working toward achieving, even more so now that he has started a family.

This all goes a long way towards explaining the title of his 10th album as a leader, 'Providencia,' which is Spanish for "providence." The word means something akin to divine guidance or divine care, but when asked about the title, the pianist has his own definition: "It is an invitation to be prepared for the unknown. It is also inspired by the idea of the kind of world we will leave for future generations. I think about the children -- including my own -- and ask myself if we can do anything to leave them a better world."