• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• Music
• 08 / 30 / 2010

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Alfredo Rodriguez makes his Seattle debut Tuesday when he opens a two-night stand at Jazz Alley with his trio featuring Helsinki-born bassist Peter Slavov and Cuban drum master Francisco Mela.

Alfredo Rodriguez discovered jazz at 15, when his uncle gave him Keith Jarrett's solo piano album "The Köln Concert."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Quincy Jones Presents The Alfredo Rodriguez Trio 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., $21.50 (206-441-9729 or www.jazzalley.com).

As Cuba's latest piano sensation, Alfredo Rodriguez knows he's walking in exalted company.

A graduate of the Manuel Saumell Conservatory, the same Havana institution that launched Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Manuel Valera, Rodriguez found out early on that prodigious talent could be a passport to an illustrious musical career.

"Knowing that Gonzalo had gone there, it's a very big deal," says Rodriguez, 24, from his home in Los Angeles, where he settled last year after leaving Cuba. "In the school, they just teach classical music. It's on the street that you play popular music and discover jazz. In my case, I love classical music and jazz, too. Improvisation is the most important thing to me in the music. It's my passion."

Rodriguez makes his Seattle debut on Tuesday, when he opens a two-night stand at Jazz Alley with his trio featuring Helsinki-born bassist Peter Slavov and Cuban drum master Francisco Mela (who's also a member of saxophonist Joe Lovano's Us5 band).

Even with his extraordinary technique, Rodriguez never imagined that he would rocket to international acclaim so quickly. The journey started when he earned a spot as one of 12 international pianists featured at the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Quincy Jones, whose track record as an ace talent scout dates back more than half a century, happened to catch his set, and made it his business to unleash Rodriguez upon the world.

It took several years, but Jones helped the pianist leave Cuba and settle in the U.S. In addition to giving him his imprimatur (Rodriguez's shows are always billed as "Quincy Jones Presents"), Jones has composed music with the pianist, and used his considerable influence to land him the highest profile gigs.

"He is very special and I do not say that easily, because I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my entire life," Jones has said.

Rodriguez discovered jazz at 15, when his uncle gave him Keith Jarrett's classic solo piano album "The Köln Concert" (ECM).

Drawn in by Jarrett's obvious classical training, he was seduced by the spontaneous flow of ideas sustained throughout the course of a long recital.

"The difference was he was improvising all the time," Rodriguez says. "I said, this is another world. I told myself I'm going to start to do that stuff. We often cannot speak about love or sadness. He's doing whatever he feels. I want to do that."

By Andrew Gilbert

Special to The Seattle Times

Andrew Gilbert: [email protected]

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com