# Today at Jazz Plaza: piano of all colors and eras

**Date:** 01/18/2022

It is titled Confluencias de pianos and from the promotional poster itself the diversity jumps out at first glance. When you read the names of the guests of young pianist and composer Rodrigo Ameneiros for this presentation, you discover that, indeed, these are diverse pianists, each brilliant in their own style and representatives of different generations, as if Rodrigo had set out to demonstrate that the piano music of this island can be conjugated in all times, but especially in the present and future.

From proven geniuses like Frank Fernández and José María Vitier, to the young ladies Adriana and Andrea López Gavilán, excellent students at the elementary level at the capital school Manuel Saumell, we find musicians like Manolito Simonet, Roberto Carcassés, Rolando Luna, Aldo López Gavilán, Tony Rodríguez, Alejandro Falcón, Ernesto Oliva, Andy García and Brayan Álvarez.

The concert is part of the program of activities for the current edition of the Jazz Plaza Festival and we spoke with its host about it.

How did the idea to organize this concert come about?
"The original idea was conceived by me together with Víctor Rodríguez, Vitico, who is a very important part of the Festival's organizing committee and, furthermore, Director of the Center for Popular Music and I am very grateful that he trusted me with a project like this. More than a year and a half ago, one day we were talking and I asked Vitico, where can I perform this year at Jazz Plaza? And he said to me, well, we are doing tributes, dedicating concerts to certain things and we film them and it becomes a product for posterity. And I responded: then what I want to do is a tribute to piano playing. I am a pianist and composer and I have always felt the need to give thanks for the legacy that so many people have left us who have dedicated their lives to composing, studying piano and doing new things that have become part the history of Cuban music. I made him the proposal and from there it started to gain momentum in a way I could never have imagined. At first I didn't even think about inviting pianists and doing it with two pianos, but it kept gaining strength, with invitees saying yes, that they liked the idea and well, what is already known will happen at the Covarrubias".

Will it be recorded?
"This concert was already recorded last January because this was really for the previous Festival and we recorded it with some of the pianists who will be in this second edition and others who cannot be there for various reasons, because it's difficult for all these stars to be in the country at the same time, plus the Covid situation, so this time some are not here, but others have joined who are equally great and for me it is an honor and a pride to have them. I always have to clarify that the people who are in the concert are not all the pianists by far, that is, there are a lot of spectacular pianists, composers in Cuba, to whom I am also paying tribute in this concert even though they are not on stage with me".

What did you take into account when selecting the invited pianists?
"The truth is, most of the invited pianists are people who, in one way or another, have influenced my career greatly, some as friends, as teachers and others as references that I have always followed and I believe that, in some way, all the people who are in the concert have some relationship with me in friendship and toward all of them I feel, of course, an immense respect. I don't think it was a selection as such, but rather as the pianists who wanted to do it came forward, we did it. I would have liked to invite many more, because Cuban piano playing is immense, but it had to be a concert format and we were already at the edge of time".

Diversity is an evident characteristic in the selection, in terms of generations and also in terms of areas of music in which the guests work. Why? Does this diversity try to convey some message to us?

"Yes, it is a very diverse concert and from its planning it already intended to be. I am a pianist in training who has tried, in these years of my career, to carry on equally the music called concert music and also jazz and popular Cuban autochthonous genres, therefore I wanted to capture that also in the repertoire and the pianists, so you will hear the same a jazz ballad as a chamber work, as more contemporary jazz, a danzón, a nengón guantanamero, there will be everything. That is one of the great challenges for me, but it is something that I always wanted to try to show off a bit and defend the concept that music does not have to put up barriers between styles, everything can contribute to the formation of each pianist, knowing a bit of everything, entering into different genres".

I saw in the promotion that "there will be many surprises". Any that you can reveal?
"The surprises have to do, in part, with the repertoire, there are pieces that are well known, that they will recognize and it also has to do with the guests who come to play with the pianists who participate, so José María Vitier will play with the musicians he usually plays with, Abel Acosta and Yaroldy Abreu, who are two excellent musicians. In the case of Rolando Luna he will play with Gastón Joya on bass and on drums with Oliver Valdés, who will also be with Tony Rodríguez, my invited group will also be there, that is, there will be a lot of variety of music and musicians, trying to give their personal vision and adding a bit of colors to a concert that will be full of that, a wide range of colors, styles and I hope you enjoy it as much as I hope to enjoy it".