Mercury News Reviews Alfredo’s Monterey Performance

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Photo Credit: Stuart Brinin Photography

“Young Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez sounds the way Monk might have sounded if he had been born in Chick Corea’s body and raised on a diet of Bach Chopin and Stravinsky in a Havana conservatory.” -Mercury News

Alfredo’s Monterey Jazz Festival Review by Jazz Observer

“It’s not easy to silence the outdoor Garden Stage crowd, but a hush fell over the ground within minutes, and for the next hour the quiet was broken only by enthusiastic applause… and the occasional airplane.” - The Jazz Observer

Review of Alfredo @ Monterey Jazz Festival

“Young Cuban pianist Rodriguez, playing on the Garden Stage in late afternoon, served notice that he is an emerging rising star worthy of note.

His expressive face mirroring his moves on the piano, alternately grimacing, laughing, eyes closed, talking to himself, Rodriguez enthralled a capacity crowd with his prodigious talent.

And for a player with a reputation as a frenetic performer Rodriguez displayed a often-delicate touch, especially on a gorgeous version of the jazz classic “Body & Soul.”
-The Monterey County Herald

Review from Alfredo’s 2009 DJF Show

Check out the review of Alfredo’s recent appearance at the Detroit Jazz Festival on JazzPolice.com by clicking here.

An excerpt from the review follows:

“Alfredo Rodriguez, for me (and I suspect many others) the most pleasant surprise of the festival…Unlike any Cuban pianist I have heard, Rodriguez—the only artist I saw at the festival to perform solo– seemed more a melding of Bill Evans, Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, even touches of Thelonious Monk in conception if not execution, hints here and there of his Cuban heritage… if Chopin had spent time in Havana. His rendition of “Body and Soul” was the most stirring keyboard version I can remember, and he arranged the unlikely nursery rhyme, “Frère Jacques,” as if always intended to be a beautiful jazz ballad. Technical brilliance tempered by touch and eloquent voicings, never bombastic, Alfredo Rodriguez hopefully will soon be playing in a club near you… and me.”

Review of Alfredo at the Detroit Jazz Fest

Check out the review of Alfredo’s recent appearance at the Detroit Jazz Festival on MLive.com by clicking HERE.

An excerpt from the review follows:

“When Alfredo Rodriguez ended his solo piano set Sunday afternoon at the Detroit Jazz Fest, many in the audience were pretty sure they had just witnessed genius in bloom…

This is how good he is. After jolting the audience at the beginning of his show, by the end we were leaning in, cocking our ears so as not to miss a note. As he played a quiet stanza, noise bled from a nearby stage, and we were reminded that, oh yeah, there’s a jazz festival going on. Alfredo had sucked us in to his world.”

Photo Credit: Michael Pitt