Alfredo Rodriguez

Alfredo Rodriguez sets out to do something that isn’t being done by many composers at the moment: Bridging mainstream Latin sounds — like the Latin pop, timba, salsa, bachata, tango, reggaeton and bolero — with jazz. Good luck staying seated or keeping your feet still at this show!

In 2019, a decade after moving from Cuba to Los Angeles on Quincy Jones’ invitation, Havana-born jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez moved to Miami to be closer to family living in Florida. In the process of settling into his new home, the pandemic set in and Rodriguez, who’d been on the road, playing, touring, and recording for nearly a decade straight, came home to stay.

Though the pause in performing was hard, it had its silver linings. Along with being able to spend quality time with his new baby daughter, lockdown gave him more time for composing than he’d had in ages, and he found himself wanting to write an uplifting album at a very divisive and heavy time. And, like so many during the pandemic, he felt a drive to get back to his roots. Quickly, Rodriguez’s triumphant new record — Coral Way, which weaves the festivity, rhythmic syncopation and instrumentation of Latin styles with the harmony and spontaneity of jazz — began to come to life.

Rodriguez says his voracious and widely-varied listening, as well as his social media presence, played a part in his decision to soak his new material in Latin polyrhythms, handheld percussion, guitar, dance beats, brass and more. He finds that his audiences on Instagram really respond to his infusion of jazz with music like timba, for example, a Cuban salsa style that people in North America are less exposed to.

But, most importantly, Rodriguez feels more emphatic than ever about showing the intersections between all these styles and cultures, to foster connection and hope.

“That is always my goal,” he said. “I’ve always been trying to [collaborate] with [artists] from different parts of the world because I learn from those cultures that I am not a part of. For me, recording an album is something I enjoy so much because I [get to] bring people together.”