"I would like to play for my people"

October 18, 2020

Alfredo Rodríguez crossed the border from Mexico into the United States when he was just 22 years old, in 2009. Quincy Jones had perceived great potential in him as a musician and proposed signing him to his company. He promised him a contract and to support his career development. He is currently one of the most successful Cuban jazz musicians on a global level and regularly performs in the most prestigious circuits within the genre. He has shared the stage with a series of instrumentalists who have made history in jazz and has published more than four albums praised by prestigious critics and music magazines. In fact, one of his albums, The invasion parade, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2015.

Alfredo turned 35 this week. He posted a photo of part of the celebration, which was shared by hundreds of Cubans on social media. In the image you could see the young pianist, son of the popular Cuban singer Alfredo Rodríguez, alongside stars like Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Jeff Lyne, and Quincy Jones himself. "Sharing with people like that is always incredible. Not just because they are celebrities, but because I admire those artists so much. The Beatles are something incredible and Paul as well. Having played that night for them was very gratifying. I heard them talk about stories and situations they've lived through together. Quincy with Paul and both with The Beatles. Hearing all those stories is incredible. They heard a bit of my music. They're very normal people. Many times we idolize artists and put them on a pedestal, but we're all humans with our good and bad traits," Alfredo tells me about that photo, which has been talked about a lot among Cuban music lovers.

The musician assures me that his life, since he left Cuba in 2009, has been a learning experience. He tells me this via WhatsApp, as we recall an interview I did with him several years ago at his grandmother's apartment, in a building in Centro Habana, near Havana's malecón. "I look back and I'm really grateful I've been able to learn a little from all those great musicians at 35," he tells me.

How was the encounter with these legends? Did you talk about Cuba?

Not much, honestly. I wasn't with them all night because I had to leave since I had a recording session. I played for them and we talked a bit about Cuba. Paul knows about Cuba and so does Quincy, although they don't know it as well as we do. We talked about Cuban musicians. Quincy always mentions the era of Celia Cruz, Machito, Chano Pozo. He always talks about those musicians with everyone. Paul was very receptive and knew many things about Cuba.

It's interesting that many people in the world, with so many accomplishments, know about our culture, even though we are a very small country. Our culture is very rich and you feel it anywhere. I've noticed it myself in the jazz world. A Cuban musician is always accepted anywhere. I think it's because of the tradition of so many years, in which Cuban musicians have set the bar so high. I think that's why. There are many people who listen to your proposal if you're Cuban. For other musicians from other places it's not like that and it's very difficult for them simply. Cubans have connected very strongly in the world of jazz and world music. It's something very beautiful, really.

During a previous interview, you told me it was very difficult for Cuban musicians outside of Cuba to perform on the Island. Has that reality changed?

In my case it's been complicated. It's been very difficult for me to play in Cuba the way I want to. I'm dying to go to Cuba because it's my country, the nation where I was born and it explains what I am in many ways. But I want to do things my way. I don't want anyone to tell me where I have to play, who I have to play with, and put restrictions and restrictions on me. Really that was one of the reasons why I'm not physically in Cuba. It's because of the restrictions, because of the obstacles that are usually placed on some artists.

What happened to me on International Jazz Day was a very unpleasant experience for me. I have a very positive personality and ugly things don't get to me, but that kind of experience hurts a lot of people. My manager, my mentor Quincy Jones, and a bunch of friends like Richard Bona and Esperanza Espalding were going to that concert. My name was written in the list of participants and suddenly I realized I wasn't welcome at a concert like that. That's why I didn't go.

Everything in Cuba is usually organized by the same people and it's complicated for me to yield and believe. How am I going to believe that I can do a huge concert and have to go through that same filter that everyone knows? I'm tired of hearing stories that way. I would love to play for the Cuban people. My flag is with me in every place I play and Cubans go to see me. But I feel that in my country is where it costs me the most to play. That's why I prefer to turn the page and move on, until I see that there is a real opening and an opportunity for me.

I see that there are other artists who go, but every person is a different world. I don't know what relationships each person has with Cuba, with the Cuban government, I have no idea. That's why I prefer to talk about my situation. What I can tell you is that Cubans are always with me. Cuba is with me and it's a shame for me and for Cubans on the Island, that we can't enjoy each other together in the musical aspect. My mission is to be who I am and I am Cuba in many ways. I want to take my country's name, my roots, and mine to the highest level. I hope that in the near future my music reaches Cuba the way I want it to: me playing there at a concert for my people.

Do you know what really prevented your presence at the celebration of International Jazz Day in Cuba?

What I know is that they did everything through my company. If they contacted Quincy, they contacted my manager, who is the same person. They did everything with the Thelonious Monk Institute and Herbie Hancock, who is the promoter of that celebration. So they invited me because it was normal that, if all those great musicians were going, I would go with them. I participate in all the concerts we do at this kind of celebration. I go with Quincy to all the places where he does big concerts.

In this case, the musicians I regularly play with were going to Cuba. Suddenly, I saw that my name was in the program, but in Cuba it wasn't mentioned in the preparations. In my country you never know who is the one telling you no. They're geniuses at that. There's no clarity and nobody steps up saying "Alfredo can't come to Cuba," but I realized my name was increasingly being removed. So I found out about situations where it's said, for example, that Alfredo can't play in the big gala that will be televised or where Cubans living in Cuba will be, alongside Americans.

So I decide not to go because, if I don't adapt to those regulations outside of Cuba, how am I going to do it in my country. I can't do it when the Cuban government tells me where I can play and where I can't, especially when it came to the places where my compatriots and my mentors would be playing. In Cuba they make you leave in every aspect. I left physically because a person like Quincy Jones offered me to play in a bunch of festivals, to make a contract with me. What young person from anywhere in the world would discard an offer like that? But don't throw me out of Cuba that way.

I don't need to live off politics to make money. I don't need to go around saying the bad and good things about Cuba to build my career and be trending on social media. When I've said something, I've done it from the heart and not to make any money. What people like most is when I put my music out there. It makes me very uncomfortable that my country is the only one that rejects me.

I haven't hurt anyone. I'm a transparent and pure guy and I don't speak ill of people. Bad situations, I avoid them completely. I don't understand how nobody has the curiosity or any newspaper or TV station in Cuba is interested in interviewing me. I would like some program in Cuba to tell me that I have open doors to show my music. I don't understand how people on the Island don't mention their compatriot. I've created for Cuba; whenever I perform anywhere, the program says "Cuban pianist." I don't feel American. I'm grateful to this nation for all the opportunities it's given me, but I'm Cuban. My name is like that everywhere. It's illogical that this continues to happen to me in Cuba.

Have you formally not received an invitation from any Cuban institution to perform in Cuba?

I receive invitations from friends, who are young people doing a lot for Cuban culture, although sometimes they don't let them. They try to bring Cuban musicians based outside the Island to do projects. Many have told me they're going to look into me to bring me to Cuba and the conversation ends there. Something is happening with me that I don't know about. I imagine everything falls apart when someone receives a call or an email, because that's how it works. Right now, if I receive an invitation, it will be hard for me to believe it has good intentions behind it, because of the distrust I already have. If at some point I return to Cuba to play, I would want to do something well done. Not arrive and play anywhere and feel bad and denigrated.

Since Quincy Jones "discovered" you, you've maintained a close relationship with him, even saying you're friends. How has that bond been forged?

It's been incredible. From the beginning, Quincy and I had chemistry and great energy. Very beautiful and natural. Our relationship has been very organic and spontaneous. I'm not quite sure how to describe how that friendship was born. He felt an affinity for what I was playing and, from that moment on, I've been one of his chosen musicians. I don't know why. It must be because he likes my music. I feel very fortunate. I've been working with his company for more than ten years. I was the first artist he signed to his company after many years during which Quincy hadn't signed anyone. Now there are a bunch of incredible artists in the company. I think I was an impetus for that to start. Quincy's manager is a young guy, a friend of mine.

Has your friendship with Quincy ever been in danger? Several musicians have assured me that he's a man with a very strong personality.

He's a person guided by his principles and his honesty toward music. He has always created good music in all genres and has achieved it successfully. That's already something incredible. There are many people who create good music and struggle to succeed. There are many factors that have to align to have a good product, with positive energy, that succeeds. He's guided by his honesty toward music, and his rigor. In my humble experience of ten years working and living with him, because we spend hours and hours in the studio and traveling, I can tell you that he's an extremely humble person.

Of all the celebrities I've met, he's the artist who spends the most time with people he doesn't know, with people from whom he knows he's only going to get admiration and respect. That means a lot to me because my parents instilled that in me. Music is extremely important, but your humanity has to be linked to that music, as it's a reflection of who you are as a person. Quincy is perhaps a little strong when he's dealing with recordings, but he's very kind. He's the kindest person, among all the celebrities I've met, and there are quite a few. He's certainly an incredible person."

I arrived in the United States at 22 years old. At that age you always have a hunger for success, a need for people to hear what you do. So both of us started creating with tremendous energy. If I'm lucky enough to live 40 or 50 years, it's going to be a very beautiful experience to remember that time. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can and absorb all the teachings from that great genius that is Quincy. I'm the only Cuban in his company.

What's the best advice he's given you for music and life?

I don't know if consciously or unconsciously, but what I've learned the most from him is that, every time I go to bed, I should do it with the certainty that I'm doing what I want to do. It's important to understand that we have only one life and it's short. You have to enjoy without hurting others, move forward without taking from others, and forge an individual path through sacrifice, passion, joy, and not sadness. There are people who unfortunately build careers through the negative, the sad.

Quincy has taught me that in unity there is strength. Quincy has fought hard for the unity of countries, of races. That's well established in projects like "We are the world." He was the only one who could have accomplished something like that. He managed to unite so many stars and so many egos in the midst of so many things that artists have going on inside. Artists experience many complicated situations in their careers, which influence their personality. That's why I think you have to understand them. That project says a lot about what Quincy is. I've humbly tried to follow in his footsteps at the level that corresponds to me and give love to people through music and what I do.

Do you think there's an album in your repertoire that better summarizes your personality?

They've all had a different story. The first album was with music I recorded at the Amadeo Roldán and at the ISA. Also, I made 3 or 4 songs in the United States. There's one, called "Cruzando la frontera," which is what I did to enter this country. There's a bit of a mix of what I learned in Cuba and my first months in the United States. The second album is a reunion with my roots. On that album, all the songs have a strong influence of Cuban music. There's music related to Santería. It was precisely on that album that I met Pedrito Martínez, who sang on two songs I wrote. There's son, timba, boleros, changüí, many genres from Cuba that I was already beginning to miss. I'd been in the United States for about five years and I missed Cuba a lot. I was looking for a lot of information about Cuban music that I couldn't get there. Tocororo is already an opening to the world. There's the Alfredo who had known many countries and different artists. At that moment, I was living an incredible process of acculturation. On that album there are musicians from India, Spain, Lebanon, the United States, and Bulgaria.

The Little dream, on the other hand, is a confirmation of the work with my trio, with which I played for almost ten years. Currently we're still doing it, although I've paused that work a bit because of the demands of other projects.

The result of the album Duologue, with Pedrito Martínez, is very interesting.

It's the result of having played several years with Pedrito. I love his work, his music, and his essence as a human being. This duet album seemed quite bold to me. It seemed like a big challenge. He came from a quartet and I came from a trio. On this album, Pedrito sings and so do I. He wrote most of the lyrics and I composed all the music.

What impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on your work, which as far as I know, forced you to cancel the rest of your scheduled concerts in Europe?

At the height of the pandemic, I was in Europe. Now, with technology, you can collaborate with different friends around the world. That's one of the things I've dedicated myself to the most, plus getting together with friends, always respecting health and safety measures. Now health is more important.

I haven't played live since March. I've postponed many dates. I had a tour in April and another huge one in July and August. Right now I should be playing in Europe and the United States. In the United States, the situation for playing is a bit more difficult. Right now I'm supposedly supposed to have a tour through Europe with Richard Bona, with whom I have a duet. We're going to do concerts in November in France and Poland, among other countries. We'll see if it works out and we don't have to postpone it.

The most beautiful part of this time is that I've spent a lot of time with my one-year-old daughter. My life is constantly traveling and I was going to miss a lot of her early growth. It's been very nice to be with her during this time. She's been my refuge to keep going, because this has been very difficult for everyone. But for musicians, being locked in a house, without playing, is very complicated. Children always give you energy and very nice things. For me it's been very gratifying to be with her during these months and not have to be away from home.

I have two projects for next year, I want to release two different albums. Right now, I'm having conversations with the record label because I already have the music very advanced. I'd like to record soon. I'm thinking of doing it at the end of this year or the beginning of next. These two projects really have me excited. Apart from that, I'm always inventing things for my social networks. I post songs to entertain myself and to entertain my audience as well.

Will we hear the same creative line in these new albums that you've followed since your beginnings, or will there be a break from your previous work?

What I've done with my career is a follow-up to everything I've been learning in Cuba and outside of Cuba. My music ultimately reflects who I am. Right now I'm many different things. My principles are always going to be in my music; Cuba is also always going to be there, and everything I'm experiencing. It all depends on what each person considers Cuba or the world and music to be. I think those albums will be a follow-up to my life, my career, the pandemic, which has also impacted my career very strongly. I will never leave my roots behind, that's who I am. I carry Cuba always in my blood, wherever I go. That sense of belonging is reflected in all the music I make. Jazz has always impacted my music deeply, and me. That's why the character of improvisation will always be present in my music.

That said, there are many genres I like. Since I was little, I've worked in various areas, including music I made with my dad, with whom I played several times in Cuba. Popular music I love. I've been publishing timba songs on my social networks for several years. I like, as I said, all music. I don't separate it into jazz, timba, or classical music. In fact, in the timba videos I make, I take the songs a bit toward classical music. Other songs like "Balada para Richard Clayderman" I've also brought to timba and my friends have told me I'm crazy. I really have fun doing that.

Also my experience comes from the musicians I play with. I try to surround myself with artists I admire and consider incredible stars in what they do. I'm not one of those who tell others what they have to do on an album or on stage. If I call a musician, it's so they bring the special part of their world to mine. Whenever I make an album, it's with the expectation of seeing what the musicians contribute, aside from the fact that I already have an idea of what I want to do.

Have you noticed big changes in your personality since you left Cuba?

I've changed a lot, because I was going to change, and also because life has made me change. Music and the person go hand in hand. From the guy I was when I was at the Amadeo and the ISA I keep the same essence, the same drive. I always remember an anecdote. I was with Gastón Joya and Michael Olivera (with whom I had my trio in Cuba) at the Gato Tuerto in Havana. There was only one person and we played as if we were playing the last concert of our lives. It's one of the nicest memories I have. We were sweating like crazy and we were super young. I still have that drive, brother. When I get on stage, I do it as if it were my last day there. I hope I can keep it that way.

It's hard because as you get older you feel it physically. But today I still play with the same energy as always. That Alfredo Rodríguez has never disappeared, although he's changed. My life has changed and I've incorporated new things into my music. I think if I had stayed in Cuba I wouldn't have achieved it. Simply because it's another place and has another way of life and of seeing things, especially at the moment I lived through it.

I see a lot of people writing to me from Cuba telling me they like my music. When I was in Cuba, it was very difficult to know what was happening in the world. I hope that young people in Cuba are getting nourished by what's happening in the world. I'm not going to think about what I would be like if I were in Cuba, because that's an image that doesn't exist. My life has changed, but the part I'm left with is that everything I've done has been under my conviction and the influence of who I am, musically, and in all of life. I've made all my decisions to achieve what I am. I hope to keep that all my life. I plan to stay without sacrificing my principles or my honesty, for money or material and banal things.

Have you ever felt suffocated by the demands of so many tours?

I've never felt it was too much. I'm quite hardworking and very enterprising. On the contrary: I love the stage and I'm dying to get back on it. I feel that my mission in the world is to do it and give people what I am. I feel very gratified when people come to me laughing or crying. There are many people who have approached me crying, because they're moved by my music. That fills me with energy to continue.

Do you think there's something that prevents greater expansion of music in Cuba?

Situations like the ones that have happened to me have happened to many other artists. That doesn't help culture grow. Depending on who you are, people will be that way with you. What's hard for me is to see how sometimes what's positive is halted. That happens in matters of music and art in general. We've gone many years without being able to say what we want. We deserve to choose what we want and not what others tell us. It's a task for musicians and artists to contribute their grain of sand and speak up about what they disagree with. I think together we can achieve better things than what we're achieving.

The Cuban jazz scene and Cuban music in general has broad international recognition. How do you value musical creation in Cuba, despite the well-known lack of resources that affects it?

The contemporary musicians around my age are incredible, both in Cuba and outside of Cuba. Piano has been a leader in jazz and other branches of music for many years. Pianists have more of a career outside and inside Cuba than other instrumentalists. I see videos of friends of mine and other guys who play very well. In Cuba people breathe music. That's something you can't take away from Cubans. People play naturally. You don't have to go to school to be a good musician. That is, to learn about what classical music is and learn to read, yes, but to carry music inside and interpret it you don't have to go to school. On the streets are the rumberos, the folklore, and they haven't gone to school. That doesn't happen in many countries. Cuba will never stop living with music. What gets out there depends on the media, the government, the people. I'm convinced that incredible musicians will continue to come from Cuba.

Several years ago, we talked about cultural relations between Cuba and the United States, in the context of Obama's administration. How do you perceive the current political and cultural climate between both countries?

When Obama was president of the United States, there was a very big opening. Musicians came here and Americans went to Cuba. At that moment, I also told you about my situation, which hasn't changed. Cubans living in Cuba could come and play and make a contract, but I couldn't go to Cuba and do the same. That's why for me, as I said, the context hasn't changed much. In another sense it has changed, because before many Cuban musicians came to the United States, whom I saw constantly. And it was very good that Americans went to play in Cuba. There was much more exchange and Cubans had more opportunities to see what was happening outside.

How do you observe Cuba from the United States?

I see that many musician friends are sharing their music. Now I can see more of what's happening there musically. Many friends are connected on Facebook and Instagram and I find out what's happening. Before I had to go to Cuba to find out, but now from here I hear what's going on.

In recent times, there has been a higher level of belligerence among Cubans, due to crossed opinions on social networks. How have you perceived that situation?

I think it's very good that people have a voice and that they speak their opinions about music, politics, anything. I think it's good for humanity. Like in all aspects, there's the negative and the positive. The negative has more ways of reaching people because, unfortunately, that's how the world has worked since forever. If there's an explosion on the street, everyone will be focused on that, but if someone comes out asking for a hug, it's very hard for someone to give it to them. Many people take advantage of this to have more audience because that's all that matters to them. Many people take advantage of negative content to become famous. There are people who play that game.... And many respond to them and chaos forms. But this is just my opinion.

I totally agree with freedom of expression, but I'd like more respect and for people to have good intentions and not let themselves be guided only by money.

What's your relationship with your father like?

I talk to my parents and my brother every day. My dad never wanted to leave Cuba, he belongs to a different generation. I left Cuba as a young person, without a big career and without being a famous person.

My dad is an extremely popular person among the Cuban public. For him, it was very difficult to leave Cuba. When I came to the United States, he had a contract in Mexico because he was writing for a newspaper and had a television contract in that country. So, when I left for the United States, he also decided to leave. He felt that, because of the laws at that time, it would be almost impossible for us to see each other if he stayed in Cuba with my mom. So he stays in Mexico for about two years and then decided to come to the United States. My brother came before my parents. They no longer had any children in Cuba. My dad has a very small family. My grandparents died when I was a child of five or six years old. He has no siblings and we're a very small family. Nothing but my brother and me, and some distant cousins. That's why he decided to leave.

Have you felt nostalgic for what you left behind in Cuba?

In Cuba I was a street urchin. I would sit at my piano for four hours, but when I finished, I would go out to the street to play soccer in the park, I'd climb trees. I wasn't a withdrawn child. I lived my childhood very intensely, played a lot with my little friends. Those are things that never come back. When I return to Cuba, I try to find my friends, but they're not there anymore. I feel like I'm going back to my origins, but that's no longer my place. My people aren't there, nor my friends, and it's not the same Cuba anymore. That happens to my dad too. He always tells me about Cuba in the 50s and 60s, when he was a child. He knows that won't come back either. In any country, a decade marks an abysmal difference. People change, and technology and information too. The older we get, the harder it is for us to adapt to changes.

The same thing happens in the United States. Older people have a hard time understanding what an iPhone 10 is, but children know how to use a computer perfectly. You have to try to live with that and not be stuck in the past. I feel nostalgic for the Cuba I lived, for my years at the Manuel Saumell school, for my friends. I had a very happy childhood. My parents always tried to guide us on the path of honesty and joy. I feel we were very fortunate. My brother wanted at one point to follow in my footsteps, but he "flunked" the music tests. He had incredible manual abilities for painting and other arts, but he didn't take advantage of them. Now he's a very successful businessman in the United States and I'm very proud of him.

What would you like the future of Cuba to be like?

I would like people to have a voice and a vote in all aspects. As free human beings, each person needs a voice and to say what they want. I would like Cuba to be a country that, without losing our culture, our roots, would be much more open to what's happening in the entire world. Cuba is a beautiful island, full of nice people, that needs changes, and new problems. We've lived with the same problems for many years and we already need new problems. I always say the same thing. There are problems everywhere, but we need a new one. I would like Cuba to move forward, with our own decisions, to be a country where I can organize my own concert, like I do everywhere in the world, and not have to face a thousand obstacles to do it. I really want to play in Cuba and for all of us to give each other a hug.