Free Music Stream: Alfredo Rodriguez NPR Concert

Here you’ll find a link to a free NPR music stream on raising star Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez.

Alfredo Rodriguez is a young Cuban pianist that came to the United States just a few years ago with an invitation from Quincy Jones. The son of a famous Cuban singer of the same name, Alfredo Rodriguez is a remarkable Latino jazz talent that has carved a name in the jazz world.

I call Alfredo the Latino Keith Jarrett. In an interview I did with Alfredo Rodriguez back in 2010, he recounted how a Keith Jarrett jazz album influenced his career as it clearly defined in his mind what he really wanted to do with his music career. The ability to play jazz music freely was something that he had not been able to experience in Cuba, and he knew that was he’s calling.

I witnessed the performance of Alfredo Rodriguez at Seattle’s Jazz Alley back in August 2010, where he had fellow Cuban Francisco Melo on the drums and Bulgarian Peter Slavov on bass, and it was a mesmerizing experience to see and listen to the trio.

This time around, Alfredo Rodriguez teams up with follow Latinos from Puerto Rico Ricardo Rodriguez on bass, and raising star Henry Cole on drums. If you want to listen to a completely new version of the Cuban classic “Guantanamera”, I invite you to check this out! It truly exemplifies what this talented Latino can do in the piano, and why Quincy Jones decided to support his career.

In this NPR free music stream, Alfredo shares the stream with jazz vocalist Christie Dashiell. Dee Dee Bridgewater hosts the free “Live” music stream presentation, in which she introduces Alfredo first but Christie is the first performer. If you are not interested in Christie’s performance, you can skip directly to Alfredo Rodriguez’s Trio presentation at minute 21:00 of the jazz set.

The free music audio stream link to Alfredo’s presentation is HERE.

Enjoy!