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Manuel Valera: New Cuban Express
by Dan Bilawsky
Pianist Manuel Valera has been liberally mixing and melding Cuban forms with modern jazz ideals since his first record--Forma Nueva (Mavo Music, 2004)--put him on the map, but his methods have changed and evolved. He expanded his aural framework by working a woodwind quintet into the musical fabric of Vientos (Anzic Records, 2007), which showed glimpses of his more reflective side, and he took standards to task, tackling the music on his own terms on the winning Currents (MAXJAZZ, 2009). ...
Continue ReadingManuel Valera: Yaoundé, Currents & Oscar e Familia
by David Adler
Samuel TorresYaoundéBlue Conga2009 Manuel ValeraCurrentsMAXJAZZ2010 Oscar FeldmanOscar e FamiliaSunnyside2010 Cuban pianist Manuel Valera is throwing his weight around the jazz scene and having an impact on several different levels. He's a fine acoustic stylist but also a serious proponent of electric keys. He's a rhythmic hyper-modernist ...
Continue ReadingManuel Valera: Vientos
by Jim Santella
Pianist Manuel Valera merges a classical woodwind quintet with his traditional jazz quartet on a whirlwind of original adventure and swing. His chamber jazz ambience has been influenced by classical composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Shostakovich but Valera has replaced the French horn from the classical idiom with a bass clarinet, giving a different texture to his ensemble. Five selections feature the jazz quartet alone--Joel Frahm (soprano and tenor saxophones), James Genus (bass) and Ernesto Simpson (drums)--while another ...
Continue ReadingManuel Valera: Forma Nueva
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Pianist Manuel Valera reminds me of the popularity Sonny Rollins had among music critics at the beginning of his career. Like Valera, the saxophonist entered the jazz scene fully developed. Valera, however, might take issue with such an observation, although his own productions to date would argue against him in that regard. Of those, Forma Nueva, from late last year, is the first. Valera is joined by bassist John Patitucci, drummers Horacio “El Negro Hernández and Bill Stewart, and saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingManuel Valera: Forma Nueva
by John Kelman
In the liner notes to Manuel Valera’s debut group recording, Forma Nueva , writer Howard Mandel states that “Valera is no iconoclastic revolutionary, rather an innovative developmentalist.” And, true enough, Valera doesn’t break any rules, but he does bend them, finding new ways to incorporate his Cuban roots in ways that are clear but never overstated or too in-your-face. His impressionism assures that he comes as much from a classical canonical background as he does from Bill Evans and, perhaps ...
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