Located at 431 W 16th St
New York, NY 10011
between 9th and 10th Ave
(212) 414-5994 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
Blue Note Management Group APAP Showcase:
McCoy Tyner Trio with special guest Gary Bartz
Francisco Mela’s Cuban Safari
Jon Batiste Band
Alfredo Rodriguez
|
| |
Francisco Mela’s Cuban Safari
Jon Batiste Band
McCoy Tyner
January 8,2010
Concert starts @ 8PM
Doors open @ 6PM
Tickets $25.00
Buy Tickets Online [more]
Full dinner menu available / General Admission Seated Show / All Ages / First come, first seated / $10 min per person at tables
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
From an early age, Alfredo Rodríguez’s life revolved around music. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1985, and the son of a singer with the same name, music was in his blood.
At first, Alfredo wanted to be a drummer. But when he arrived at Havana’s Manuel Saumell Elementary Classical Music Conservatory at age seven, he was given the choice of the piano or violin. He chose piano, assuming that when he turned 10 (the age the conservatory allowed), he’d switch to the drums.
His musical potential, however, was not obvious to his instructor.
At the end of the first year of conservatory and in front of the entire classroom his instructor told his parents that they should remove Alfredo from the conservatory because he’d never be good enough to be a musician.
Undaunted, Alfredo stuck with it. By the time he was 10, piano was his life. At 14, he was the school’s prize pianist and the student chosen to play at graduation. He also wound up graduating first in his class, with the highest marks the conservatory had ever seen.
Alfredo quickly became a go-to producer and musical director for some of Havana’s most famous musicians, including his father. He also scored a number of popular Cuban television shows.
But his success and talent remained mostly local and barely known outside of Cuba.
Then in 2006, Alfredo heard about a Jazz festival in Switzerland that accepted
applications from Cuban musicians called the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Quincy Jones calls the Montreux Jazz Festival the “Rolls Royce” of music festivals. Every year, Montreux receives thousands of applications from musicians all over the world who hope to play there, musicians like Alfredo.
He sent his application, along with some poorly recorded demos that he had convinced a local studio to allow him to record. To his amazement, he was accepted at Montreux and allowed to leave Cuba to attend.
That same year, after hearing Alfredo play at Montreux, Quincy Jones returned home with a prized possession: Alfredo’s email address. He asked his staff to figure out a way to work with this gifted, young, jazz pianist.
They sought advice from attorneys, including one from Major League Baseball. But word came back that under the Bush Administration’s policy, securing an “O” visa for Alfredo to come to the United States was nearly impossible.
Never one to be deterred, Quincy stayed in touch with Alfredo for two-and-a-half years. He even sent members of his staff to Mexico to attend Alfredo’s Cuban government-sanctioned concert and maintain contact; hoping the political climate would one day change, so that he and Alfredo could work together.
Alfredo knew that this was a golden opportunity for himself, but his options were narrow:
He could either stay in Cuba and not bring his music to the world stage.
Or he could defect to the United States, leaving behind his mother, father, brother, and serious girlfriend.
Another year went by as he struggled to decide. Finally, he made the difficult decision so many Cubans have made to leave his family behind in pursuit of his dreams.
Alfredo secretly made plans to defect from Cuba on his next government-sanctioned trip to Mexico.
But in October, 2008, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa complicated things.
They announced the signing of a new agreement, which mandated that all Cubans found traveling across Mexican territory to the southern U.S. border would be deported back to Cuba.
Despite the huge risk, on his next trip to Merida, Mexico to play a show with his father, Alfredo walked into the Rejon Airport. He bought a ticket in cash from Merida to a small border town just across from the Southern U.S. Border.
But as soon as his flight landed, he was arrested by Mexican Federales. The arresting officer cited the October agreement, then told him that he would be deported back to Cuba.
Despite Alfredo’s vehement denials that he was trying to cross the border, he was taken to a detention center in the airport. The officer grilled him; Alfredo made excuses: he was there to play a show, he was there to see a friend, and anything else that seemed legal and plausible.
After two hours of questioning, Alfredo finally came clean: he described his love of music and how it changed his life; he wanted to be a musician who performed on the world stage.
The officer was shocked to hear the truth. He had never encountered anyone in Alfredo’s predicament who told the truth. They talked about music for a while and before he knew it, the officer inexplicably put him in a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the border.
On the night of January 15, 2009, Alfredo arrived at the Southern U.S. border. He presented his Cuban passport and asked for political asylum. He was questioned and forced to sleep on the floor of the border station.
Then, at 7:00a.m. the following morning, Alfredo Rodriguez was paroled into the United States.
Alfredo’s influences range from Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky to Thelonious
Monk, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and Quincy Jones. He will make his debut public performance in the United States at the Playboy Jazz Festival this June. Alfredo Rodriguez homepage
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
