Jazz Articles about Elio Villafranca

Elio Villafranca: The Source In Between

by Chip Boaz
January 12, 2009

Cuban born pianist Elio Villafranca has spent a lifetime observing the space between different worlds. He spent his childhood in the small Piñar de Rio region on the Western coast of Cuba and then jumped into the centralized bustle of Havana. He went through a broad and varied musical education that not only focused on the piano, but also included intensive investigations of the guitar, percussion, and composition. He immersed himself in the complex musical constructions of Havana's academic classical ...

Elio Villafranca Quartet: The Source In Between

by Marcia Hillman
August 9, 2008

Cuban pianist Elio Villafranca has found the way to celebrate both his Latin jazz roots and straight-ahead jazz influences on The Source In Between. Along with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, drummer Dafnis Prieto, bassist Jeff Carney and also featuring saxophonist Yosvany Terry, hand percussionist Arturo Stable and drummer Ferenc Nemeth on selected tracks, Villafranca wends his way through a selection of original compositions that bespeak of both the Latin and jazz genres. Ordinarily a CD with only ...

Elio Villafranca: Incantations Encantaciones

by Javier AQ Ortiz
October 9, 2003

Yet another Cuban loss is Philadelphia's gain. Enter Elio Villafranca. Incantations Encantaciones, produced alongside Larry Cramer, is his sortie into winning leadership. Sorting out the pianist's musicality, brute force, effervescence, topicality, virtuostic independence (just pay attention in “You Spoke Too Soon" on this regard), patience, candor, and brazen delicacy is not that difficult. This is one of those records that recommend themselves with scant need for analysis or justification.

First off, the session is greatly enhanced by guitarist ...

Elio Villafranca: Schoenberg's Cuban Street

by Javier AQ Ortiz
October 6, 2003

As we talked on the phone and exchanged e-mails, enough of a view on Elio Villafranca surfaced. The sight, tinted by listening to his Incantations/Encantaciones over several weeks now, is also awash in universal social commonalities among musicians, their craft, industry and conduct. His is also the stereotypical tale of an 'migr' from a dim repressor and his egomaniacal regime, although he is not overly concerned with politics and much more interested in what you are: music. Alas, it's never ...