Miami (EFE).- Jazz dominates the Global Cuba Fest for another year, which brings together in Miami “the freshest and most relevant Cuban artists of the island and its diaspora”, like the pianist Alfredo Rodríguez, in charge of opening the “download” this Saturday.
Rodríguez and fellow jazz players Jorge Luis Pacheco (piano) and Carlos Averhoff Jr. (sax) are the main figures of the festival created 15 years ago by FUNDarte and Miami Light Project and which this year is celebrated from March 5 to 12.
Both organizations come together each year to present “a celebration of the culture and rhythms of Cuba.”
The event opens this Saturday at the North Beach Bandshell amphitheater, in Miami Beach, with “Alfredo Rodríguez and Friends”, as the pianist himself points out in an interview with Efe.
The “download” will bring to the stage famous jazz players such as Cameroonian bassist Richard Bona, Peruvian-American composer and percussionist Tony Succar, and fellow Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martínez.
“The program is a mix of my songs with Cuban music, with which I grew up; in all my albums there is always cuban musicfrom (theme versions) like Twenty years, maybe, maybe, maybethe Chan chán, to Guantanamera. We transform them into our lives,” says Rodríguez, son of popular Cuban singer Alfredito (Alfredito) Rodríguez.
The Cuban pianist, “discovered” in 2006 by Quincy Jones at the Montreux festival (Switzerland), he feels “very grateful” to have the great American musician as a “mentor” and producer of five of his albums, but affirms that “it has not been better than playing for the people” who are going to see it in Miami.
“I am very earthy in those situations, I’m very grateful, but I can’t tell you that playing for Quincy was better than doing it for the people who come to see me in Miami.” says Rodríguez shortly before opening the Global Cuba Fest.
At 36 years old, Rodríguez is often mentioned in specialized publications such as “the most recognized young Cuban pianist worldwide”someone who “in just a few years went from being a young artist on the Havana jazz scene to selling out Carnegie Hall” in New York last December.
“If this is called jazz, in luck”
To Efe’s question about why jazz has been a common denominator in the history of this festival, Ever Chávez, executive director of FUNDarte, replies that “it’s always the artists, for them it’s not jazz what they do, but their music which is spontaneous.
“We curate the festival based on new projects and artists who have not performed in Miami,” he adds.
Chávez believes that the “virtuosity that (these artists) manage through the art schools they come from” has been key in their path in jazz as a musical genre.
The closing night of the festival will be on Saturday, March 12 with a double concert starring the pianist and jazz player Jorge Luis Pacheco and the saxophonist Carlos Averhoff Jr.
Pachecowho lives in Germany and, like Alfredo Rodríguez, is a fervent follower of the American jazz player Keith Jarrett (“If I am not a jazz musician all the time, at least I have been informed of what I do for jazz”, quotes Jarret on your personal website), will have as a guest the Afro-Cuban jazz and soul singer Daymé Arocena, among other musicians.
For his part, Averhoff, son of renowned saxophonist Carlos Averhoffwho died in Miami in 2016, will present his new album Together, a tribute to his father, who was a member of the mythical Cuban Latinjazz band Irakere, directed by Chucho Valdes.
Averhoff Jr., nominated for a Grammy for his collaboration on the album Buena Vista Social Club presents Omara Portuondo (2000), will be on stage at the Miami Dade County Auditorium alongside Latin jazz legends Harold López-Nussa, Brian Lynch, Nestor Torres, Maggie Marquez and Ahmed Barroso.
“We want to show in Miami the great art of Cuban music, both from the island and from the diaspora, how these artists have mixed with other cultures, and if that’s called jazz, then congratulations”, comments Chávez.
“We have such a large diaspora that converges in what we have achieved 15 years ago in Miami, a platform to be calm and enjoy Cuban talent without accidents,” rounded off the organizer of the Global Cuba Fest since 2008.
Source: Eluniverso
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