‎JazzTimes Review: Alfredo Rodriguez @ Rigas Ritmi Festival 2011 by Thomas Conrad

Excerpt: “For his solo concert in Congress Centre he made some conventional choices of material from Cuban composers, like “Quizas Quizas Quizas” by Osvaldo Farrés, “Veinte Años” by Maria Teresa Vera and “Guantanamera” by José Fernández. But he elaborated them into vast unconventional personal essays. “Veinte Años” was a deeply private ceremony performed in public, Rodriguez bent so low his forehead almost touched the keys. He proceeded in slow swirls from which the melody rang out as it passed. Sometimes he would catch and hold “Veinte Años” before letting it spill again. He has a sensitive, nuanced touch, and understands the value of silence in music, but he can also make the piano orchestral, as on the gigantic washes of “All The Things You Are.” Sometimes he reminds you of solo Brad Mehldau in his ability to sustain simultaneous contrasting ideas crossing between his hands. But Rodriguez is a more open-ended pianist than Mehldau, willing to include wildly divergent content into a single improvisation. The washes of “All The Things You Are” became light, rippling single-note runs that circled back on themselves and became obsessive little patterns, then dissolved into abstraction, then became loud crescendos again.”

To read the full review, click here.

Entrevista con Roger Roca para “El Periódico” de Catalunya, España

Live In Paris! – Alfredo Rodriguez Trio

Alfredo Rodriguez Trio w/ Reinier Elizarde & Henry Cole

For more information, click here.