Akbank Jazz Festival: Quincy Jones Presents Alfredo Rodriguez Trio at Akbank Jazz Festival at Babylon

The classically-trained Cuban jazz pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez, after his albums Sounds of Space (2011) and The Invasion Parade (2014) was back last year with a third one called Tocororo. In this album he depicts the cross-pollination between world musics and Cuban music through the eyes of tocororo, a free-spirited bird who became the national symbol of Cuba. The Grammy winner bassist from Cameroon, Richard Bona; Beirut-born trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf; the twin daughters of Buena Vista Social Club’s percussionist Miguel “Angá” Díaz, Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz (a.k.a. Ibeyi duo) and American-Indian singer Ganavya Doraiswamy are the other birds who aid this cross-pollination...

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The classically-trained Cuban jazz pianist and composer Alfredo Rodríguez, after his albums Sounds of Space (2011) and The Invasion Parade (2014) was back last year with a third one called Tocororo. In this album he depicts the cross-pollination between world musics and Cuban music through the eyes of tocororo, a free-spirited bird who became the national symbol of Cuba. The Grammy winner bassist from Cameroon, Richard Bona; Beirut-born trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf; the twin daughters of Buena Vista Social Club’s percussionist Miguel “Angá” Díaz, Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz (a.k.a. Ibeyi duo) and American-Indian singer Ganavya Doraiswamy are the other birds who aid this cross-pollination. Produced by Quincy Jones, who always aimed at reaching a global language in music, the album features a legendery Compay Segundo piece like “Chan Chan”, as well as bringing together contemporary Cuban songs and other compositions by Rodríguez himself; reaching from J. S. Bach to flamenco, from the African music to tango, even touching rock music.

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