Jazz Articles about David Virelles

About David Virelles

Album Review

Dopo il breve e visionario excursus elettroacustico di Antenna (ECM, 2016), David Virelles prosegue nella sua coraggiosa riformulazione della musica cubana sviluppando la ricerca di Mbókò, il suo debutto ECM del 2014. Se quell'album era sottotitolato Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankoméko Abakuá qui il riferimento al sacro è dato dal termine Gnosis, che indica la conoscenza esoterica, che non viene dalla ragione o dall'esperienza ma giunge dal divino. Dei partner ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Antenna

Read "Antenna" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
November 22, 2016

Pianist/composer David Virelles has combined his Cuban heritage with jazz before, most notably on his 2014 ECM leader debut Mbókò, which had the subtitle “Sacred Music for Piano, Two Basses, Drum Set and Biankoméko Abakuá." But this EP--which is being released exclusively on vinyl and digitally--takes things in an entirely new electro-acoustic direction. It's a dense sonic stew of improvisation and ritual rhythmic grooves, a sound both urban and traditional. “Binary" opens with the sound of Los Seres, ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Mbókò

by Luca Canini
February 9, 2015

Certo che ne ha di talento David Virelles. A quintali, a vagonate. Da affittare, vendere e persino subappaltare. Nell'ottobre del 2012, quando la Pi Recordings mise il timbro su Continuum, secondo disco del pianista di origini cubane, non furono in molti ad accorgersi che era nata una stella. Oggi, a due anni abbondanti di distanza, il numero degli euforici sostenitori è cresciuto in maniera esponenziale. Merito delle comparsate nel quartetto americano di Tomasz Stanko, nello strepitoso Double-Up ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Mboko

by John Kelman
October 16, 2014

For a relatively young musician nearing his 31st birthday in 2014, pianist David Virelles has managed to both garner a strong reputation and emerge with a singular voice in a relatively short period of time. While his early experiences in North America were within the confines of what might be expected from a Cuban expat, playing with Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnett, whose career has been predicated on a decades-long fascination with the music of Virelles' native country, in recent years ...

Album Review

Roman Filiu: Musae

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 14, 2013

Dafnison Music è l'etichetta fondata dal batterista di origine cubana Dafnis Prieto allo scopo di presentare sul mercato discografico i propri lavori con pieno controllo su tutte le fasi della realizzazione. Con Musae questo processo viene messo a disposizione per la prima volta di un leader diverso, nella fattispecie il sassofonista, anch'esso di origini cubane, Roman Filiu. Gli appassionati lo ricorderanno negli Irakere di Chucho Valdes o recentemente con il progetto David Murray Plays Nat King Cole in Spanish, e ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Continuum

Read "Continuum" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
November 25, 2012

The Afro-Cuban connection is slightly transformed on nascent pianist David Virelles' inspirational trio set, featuring modern jazz luminaries, bassist Ben Street and drummer Andrew Cyrille. With his second solo outing and first for PI Recordings, the pianist has quickly surged to the forefront since migrating from Cuba to Canada, supporting distinguished saxophonist Jane Bunnett and receiving the first-ever Oscar Peterson Award. On “The Executioner," Virelles commingles traditional Latin jazz values with futuristic ideologies and benefits from Cuban ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Continuum

Read "Continuum" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 7, 2012

Pianist David Virelles adopts an unusual strategy for his second album and first on Pi Recordings. Eschewing the piano pyrotechnics which illuminated his debut, Motion (Justin Time, 2008), he opts for an exploration of Cuban folklore and its manifestation through poetry, storytelling and art. Inspired by Afro-Cuban religious practice, Virelles has created a set of episodic tone poems and throbbing rhythms. Consequently there are only glimpses of the talent which has seen him named as one of four young pianists ...