When pianist Alfredo Rodriguez was a young boy, he painted keys on the dining room table to practice scales and show his parents his persistence, despite restrictions in his homeland of Cuba. An encounter with Quincy Jones at Montreux resulted in an invitation to work together in L.A., which meant giving up Cuban citizenship, along with numerous encounters at the U.S. border.
That persistence kept the appointment with Q, and a subsequent move to Miami. Coral Way is the result, a merging of jazz, Latin, salsa, tango, bolero and more, an infectious mix that dares you not to move.
From Monday, September 25 through Friday, September 29, one cut from the Coral Way album will be featured each morning on the New Day, New Play spotlight on my Daybreak show.
Preview “La Bilirrubina” from Coral Way, above.
