Cuban pianist Rolando Luna presents a double solo album

June 9, 2022

Cuban pianist Rolando Luna Carrillo performs this Thursday with the group El Comité at the Parisian venue Studio de l'Ermitage, shortly before the release of his double album 'Rolando's Faces': the first recorded live with an audience and the second a true studio album.

Rolando Luna was born in Ciudad de La Habana in 1978. He studied classical piano at the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán. His creative talent and academic training provide him with refined technique and extremely solid concepts of composition and improvisation. His works synthesize elements of jazz, Caribbean music, concert music and Cuban music; both from the past and present, of which his modern tumbaos and forays into genres such as danzón, chachachá and son are examples, enriched with varied formats.

He was First Prize winner in the JoJazz Competition (Young Jazz Musicians of Cuba) in 1999, awarded by a jury presided over by maestro Chucho Valdés. Subsequently, he recorded his debut CD En la luna (Roly) in 2001 with the Unicornio label. He also won the main prize in the Piano Solo competition (2007), held in Switzerland as part of the 41st Montreux International Jazz Festival program.

Sponsored by the musical instrument company Bosendorfer, famous for the quality of its pianos, the competition brought together 14 performers at the Petit Theatre of the Montreux Palace, previously selected from around the world for their high level of performance. Luna, who also received the Audience Award, placed second the young Shahin Novrasli from Azerbaijan, considered by the press of the former Soviet republic as a revelation. This was the second time a Cuban musician had reached the pinnacle of piano playing at Montreux: in 2005 his colleague Harold López Nussa had also earned first place. Luna had been known to the Swiss public since 2006 when he excited audiences with his performances as keyboardist for the CarHabana orchestra on the stages of the Grand Casino de Ginebra.

Rolando Luna shares the greatest stages of Cuban Music with the musicians of Buena Vista, invited by Maestro Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos. With them he has given several international performances and many more are predicted in the future for this talented musician, who greatly enjoys sharing with colleagues of such prestige, because in his opinion they are tests he must overcome as a young man and try to live up to them, which implies study and dedication, to repay the members of Buena Vista and the public his gratitude for this great opportunity and for the invaluable experience that this work allows him to acquire.