Lenox — You will not believe your ears. These guys are smoking hot, and they are coming to the Linde Center for Music and Learning on Friday, April 4.
Alfredo Rodriguez and longtime sidemen Han Beyle and Michael Olivera have virtuosic chops to spare, and they use them to play latin jazz at the very highest level, with Rodriguez on keyboards, Olivera on percussion, and Beyle on bass.
I spoke with Rodriguez this week by telephone to get a better idea of what to expect on April 4. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
How important to your music is your Cuban heritage?
I always say that I play what I live. So obviously, being from Cuba is part of my heritage, my blood, my roots, and Cuba is always very present, alive when I am on the stage, when I play music. Basically, it’s part of who I am. So that was why I started saying that I play what I live because, for me, it’s very simple to have Cuban influences in my music since I was born in Cuba and I left, and I always say left physically because, spiritually, I am always in Cuba and always thinking about it and basically dedicating my life and my music to it. But unfortunately, physically, I haven’t been there too much for so many years and lately, but Cuba is part of me.
Did you have to leave Cuba in order to understand your musical roots there?
No, not really. In Cuba, we’ve been isolated for so many years. So speaking about Cuba, it’s a country that is very… How can I say this? We have had a big contradiction in our country for so many years because it has been a dictatorship for almost 70 years, which means that almost everything is Cuban. Even in a world that we live right now, very multicultural and we see a lot of trans-culturation in many countries. The United States is one of the most important countries when it comes to that—mixing cultures. In Cuba, it’s not like that. We still are in a country that my parents are Cuban, my grandparents are Cuban, my great-grandparents—everyone is Cuban for so many years because we haven’t had most confrontation, most trans-culturation through the years because of the political situation in Cuba and also because we are an island, so we don’t have anyone closer to us. And also, it’s because of the political situation in Cuba.
Sometimes when you live in a country abroad, then you see your previous life with a different perspective. And for sure that has happened to me living in the United States. It’s not the same picture in my country while I am traveling the whole world. Right now, I am in Palermo, Italy. And as I travel the whole world playing my music, I see Cuba with different eyes now. When I was there, it is in my blood and my roots and it’s everything that I see, but you start seeing it from a different point of view. But definitely, I understood Cuban culture and Cuban music since the beginning, because it’s all what we had.
How did a Grammy nomination change you and your music?
That’s a very tough question. I think prizes are very important when it comes to developing the business side of my career, which is very important for me, and I pay a lot of attention to it.
But when it comes to my music, it doesn’t change much. When it comes to my personality, it doesn’t change much. And I hope I continue to be like this forever, because I don’t think prizes are that important. Sometimes it disorients us instead of helping us to focus on what is really important, which for me are the simple things in life. And definitely, prizes are not.
So I will say that more importantly for me, when it comes to changing my life, it has to be the presence of people, meeting great, extraordinary human beings who do very well in what they do in life and support very good things for our societies in all countries. And to be honest, that’s more than enough.
That being said, I’m very grateful when we get a result, a success through prizes, through people, important people who come to me and tell me that I’m a really good musician or things like that. But to be honest, I’ve been the same Alfredo since I was a little kid, four or five, three years old. I’ve been playing music because, for me, it has been a necessity.
For me, music is like drinking water, and I hope to continue like this forever. That’s what is most important for me, feeling grateful and thankful every day that I wake up and I feel I have one more day in order to keep learning and to keep trying in the pursuit of happiness. That’s it for me: my family, my friends, my music, sitting at the piano, and performing all over the world.
Tell us more about your sidemen.
I’m bringing my trio, who has accompanied me for a long time. My drummer and I started together in Cuba, and we’ve been playing on and off for more than 20 years. He’s coming with me. And then the bass player is from Azerbaijan. I like to bring musicians from different cultures to my music and adapt and learn from them. His name is Han Beyle. He lives in Miami. I’ve been based in Miami for the last five years, and I met him there, and he’s an extraordinary bass player, and we can’t wait to share our music, our life with your audience.
We like to listen to each other, like this conversation, because it’s an interview and I’m talking a lot, but when it comes to music, that’s not the situation. I like to listen to the musicians who are with me. I like to give them freedom and leverage to be themselves, and I like to collaborate and improvise and just be honest and open when we are on the stage.
So that’s the main message: try to welcome different cultures into your life, try to have a good time, and motivate and inspire people with what we do best, which I think is music.
