Cuban Pianist ALFREDO RODRÍGUEZ Reflects on Memories
of Home with New Album, The Invasion Parade,
Available March 4 on Mack Avenue Records
Co-Produced by Mentor Quincy Jones and Featuring
Esperanza Spalding, Pedrito Martínez and Henry Cole
""[Alfredo's] playing, proficient and soulful, projects a spirited,
youthful charm." - The New York Times
"I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my
entire life and he is one of the best." - Quincy Jones
For those who know how to listen, time and distance offer a wealth of perspective.
"When
you live in your own country, you are immersed in that reality and
you're not necessarily conscious of all the different elements that make
it what it is," says Cuban pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez,
who moved to the United States in January 2009. "I breathed Cuban
music. Being outside that reality gives me a different perspective.
Creating and playing this music has been like finding out who I am, all
over again."
On The Invasion Parade, the follow-up to his stunning debut on Mack Avenue, Sounds of Space, Rodríguez explores his memories of Cuba, the people and the culture he left behind-and finds his new place.
Co-produced by Quincy Jones, Rodríguez' champion and mentor, and featuring a superb ensemble that includes bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, percussionist/vocalist Pedrito Martínez, and drummer/percussionist Henry Cole, The Invasion Parade
comprises nine tracks including originals by Rodríguez as well as
evergreens such as "Guantanamera," Maria Teresa Vera's "Veinte Años,"
and "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás."
"I
searched different styles, different rhythms of Cuban music," explains
Rodríguez. "I explored Conga Santiaguera [a rhythm from Santiago, in
Eastern Cuba], Afro-Cuban music and also música guajira [country music].
I'm exploring the roots and searching for my own contribution to Cuban
music."
Born
in Havana, Cuba as the son of a popular singer, television presenter
and entertainer of the same name, Rodríguez began his formal music
education at seven. Percussion, not piano, was his first choice. "But to
choose what I wanted I had to wait until I was 10," he explains. "So I
picked piano. By the time I could actually switch to percussion, I knew
the piano was my path."
He
graduated to the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán, and then to the Instituto
Superior de Arte. He had a strictly formal classical musical education,
and learned popular styles on stage playing in his father's orchestra
from the age of 14. "I had a chance to perform every day, and write
arrangements for all kinds of music: boleros, rock 'n' roll, dance
music, you name it. That is where I learned the discipline of being a
professional musician."
He entered the world of jazz and improvisation at 15, when an uncle gave him Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert. "Until then it had been all Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. I didn't know anything about improvisation. The Köln Concert changed my life."
In
2006, Rodríguez was chosen to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival. While
there, he was invited to a gathering at the house of the festival's
founder and director, Claude Nobs, who asked him if he would play for
Quincy Jones.
"When
I finished, Quincy said he liked it a lot and that he wanted to work
with me. That someone I admire so much would be interested in doing
something with me was incredible. But I'm a realist, and while it was a
nice idea I thought it would be difficult. And it was."
It
took him three years. Finally in 2009, while in Mexico after playing
some engagements with his father who lived there at the time, Rodríguez
made his move with "nothing: a suitcase with a sweater, a pair of jeans
and my music."
Sounds of Space, his first album on Mack Avenue, was released in 2011.
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Photo Credit: Miguel Elizalde
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The title The Invasion Parade
refers to an annual tradition, a carnival parade in Santiago de Cuba
commemorating the invasion of the Liberation Army that marked the end of
Cuba's War of Independence. In this blocks-long parade "not only
comparsas [drumming and dance groups] participate but also all the
people of Santiago, they come out and join playing whatever they
have-drums, pots, whatever, and singing improvised lyrics," explains
Rodríguez.
The
term "invasion" in the title, he's quick to note, "refers to the
invasion of the streets by people who come out to participate and
celebrate. In my mind it also has to do with an invasion of culture. I
wrote and arranged the music but not everybody in the group is Cuban. We
have Cubans but also Americans [such as Esperanza Spalding], a Puerto
Rican [Henry Cole], a Bulgarian [bassist Peter Slavov] and it's a mix of
cultures in which everybody contributes."
The
soprano sax in "The Invasion Parade" is featured to evoke the Chinese
trumpet, the one melodic instrument in the Santiago conga ensemble. "The
idea is to recall that sound without trying to sound traditional-and at
the same time express who we are," he explains.
The
sunny "Guantanamera" receives a dissonant, almost unsettling treatment.
"My music is very influenced by contemporary music-Messiaen,
Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Prokofiev-and I try to bring my experience and
that sound to Cuban music to take it to a different place," he says.
"And obviously, my 'Guantanamera' is not about the same Guantanamera
that [composer] Joseíto Fernández knew [in the 1920s]," explains
Rodríguez. "For me, music comes from life experience. My music reflects
the reality I lived in and my experiences, which are very different from
his."
The
Latin standard "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" and the classic "Veinte Años"
were set as a change of pace from Rodríguez' detailed, tightly
constructed compositions and arrangements.
"We
have performed 'Quizás...' many times with the trio so we just went
into the studio and played it," says Rodríguez. "We did the same with
'Veinte Años.' We know this music so we just let ourselves go. I think
it adds some balance to the record after so much composed music. It adds
a looser, more spontaneous feel."
Rodríguez
also explores the music of the Yoruba-rooted, Afro-Cuban religion
better known in the U.S. as Santería, from unexpected and often deeply
personal angles.
"A
Santa Bárbara," dedicated to the Catholic Saint who has her counterpart
in Santería as the deity Changó, is a classic song by Celina y
Reutilio, a beloved duo of Cuban guajiro music. "Reutilio died many
years ago, but Celina [González] was very close to my family. I even had
the chance to play and arrange for Celina, so this a very personal song
for me," says Rodríguez. "Those of us working on improvised music, have
been exploring Afro-Cuban music and the country music of Cuba has been
ignored, and it's a beautiful part of our culture."
"Snails
in the Creek" ("Caracoles en el Riachuelo") is a song for Eleggua,
another Santeria deity, and features the singing of Pedrito Martínez,
which he improvised in the studio.
"El
Güije," titled after a goblin in Cuban fables, features Spalding on
vocals and evokes the quirky, playful melodies of Brazilian composer and
multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, a Rodríguez favorite. "This is a
song that has influences from the Caribbean, South America and other
places, but the rhythmic foundation is Cuban and to me it means that
yes, we are global, but underneath it all, our roots are Cuban."
And
then in "Timberobot" and "Cubismo," Rodríguez addresses his interest in
and concerns about technology, modernity-but also dancing, and in
particular, timba a modern Cuban style.
"Sometimes
there's a gulf between the intellectual elements around music and the
dancer's needs. It happened in jazz and it was very damaging. In my
music I don't want to lose that connection to the dance floor, and that
doesn't happen with music that has a folk essence. You go ask a rumbero
[rumba practitioner] in Cuba and for him there is no difference between
the singer, the player and the dancer. It's all one thing. And if you
don't know all the three aspects then for him, you know nothing about
it."
As
if to drive the point home, "Cubismo" has a simple, repeated refrain:
"Dancing Cubism." "It's a celebration of timba-but a Picasso timba, a
Juan Gris timba," he offers with a laugh. "It's an abstract timba. You
are dancing timba and looking at 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.
"The invasion of The Invasion Parade
is a peaceful one, and an honest one," he says. "It's a celebration to
which all are invited, exactly like in the conga Santiaguera. That's the
message we want to send out."
Upcoming Alfredo Rodríguez Performances:
February 7 / Cornell University Concert Series / Ithaca, NY
March 6 / Scullers Jazz Club / Boston, MA
March 7 / Ferst Center for the Arts / Atlanta, GA
March 8 / Art on Broadway - First United Methodist Church / Wichita, KS
March 14 / Michigan Theater / Ann Arbor, MI
March 22 / The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College
Performing Arts Center / Santa Monica, CA
March 28 / Napa Valley Performing Arts Center
at the Lincoln Theater / Yountville, CA
April 23 / Kuumbwa Jazz Society / Santa Cruz, CA
April 24 - 27 / SFJAZZ Center / San Francisco, CA
Alfredo Rodríguez · The Invasion Parade
Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: March 4, 2014
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