Playboy Jazz Festival

16 June, 2009

There are quite a few reviews of Alfredo’s performance on Sunday that have appeared on the web over the past couple of days, but Alfredo was particularly humbled by the words of Don Heckman, a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times. Heckman, on his blog wrote:

“Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, discovered by Quincy Jones, is an astonishing talent. At 23, he revealed the same sort of technical virtuosity that has been present in other jazz pianists trained within the arts structures of socialist societies. But what he has done with that technique is uniquely his own. Performing a set of mostly original material, he called up images of a youthful Art Tatum, leavened with an off-center, Thelonious Monk point of view, spiced with the surging rhythmic passions of his homeland. Rodriguez’s version of “Body and Soul” can only be described as memorable – a brilliant rediscovery of a piece that seemed, long ago, to have given up all its riches.”

Comments are closed.