ARUÁN ORTIZ “Créole Renaissance”

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ARTIST

Aruan Ortiz

ALBUM TITLE

“Créole Renaissance”

LABEL

Intakt

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The first aspect that strikes the listener in this new solo work by the fifty-two-year-old Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz is the fact that it was recorded at Stefano Amerio’s Artesuono studio, long recognised and appreciated well beyond national – and by now even continental – boundaries. The album’s title, marked by restraint, taste, and focus, evokes a “Créole Renaissance” and, in this spirit, brings together eight original pieces by the pianist with two reinterpretations – one drawn from Duke Ellington, “Seven Aprils in Paris” (and “A Sophisticated Lady”), the other from Francisco Repilado, better known as Compay Segundo, “Lo Que Yo Quiero es Chan Chan” – while also including, in the fourth track (“From the Distance of My Freedom”), an extended spoken interlude in English.

All of this unfolds within a musical progression that might be described as gradual, or, if one prefers, as a process of progressive agglomeration, always governed by an absolute command of the material. The discourse is shaped predominantly in the middle–low register, drawing on dark sonorities – for the most part restrained, reflective, almost meditative – which at times become more assertive, even swirling, as in “Première Miniature (Créole Renaissance)”, ultimately defining the contours of an album that is anything but superficial or formulaic. Rather, it is immersed – one might say kneaded – in deep layers of knowledge and intention, resulting in a work that is unquestionably worthy of attention.

Bazzurro

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