Rebeca Maulen loves to mix it up musically. A sterling San Francisco pianist and composer who's been a central figure on the Latin jazz scene since the 1980s, Maulen writes music that merges sacred and secular Afro-Cuban sounds with flamenco, jazz harmony and French Impressionism.
All those elements come together in Suite Afro-Cubano," a four-movement work Maulen composed for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, which commissioned the piece as part of its New Vistas/New Visions program. Premiering Friday night at Oakland's palatial Paramount Theatre, the suite paints an aural portrait of Cuba, drawing on indigenous, Spanish and African music. In the final movement, the entire orchestra digs into a dancing mambo groove.
Maulen, 48, who's worked with everyone from Tito Puente and Carlos Santana to Joe Henderson and Mickey Hart, was nominated for a Grammy last year for producing It's About Time" by the great timbalero Orestes Vilat. She's composed for salsa groups, big bands and string quartet. But Suite Afro-Cubano" is her first work for orchestra. She talked about the piece by phone from her Forest Hill home before heading off to teach at City College of San Francisco, where she's a music professor.
All those elements come together in Suite Afro-Cubano," a four-movement work Maulen composed for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, which commissioned the piece as part of its New Vistas/New Visions program. Premiering Friday night at Oakland's palatial Paramount Theatre, the suite paints an aural portrait of Cuba, drawing on indigenous, Spanish and African music. In the final movement, the entire orchestra digs into a dancing mambo groove.
Maulen, 48, who's worked with everyone from Tito Puente and Carlos Santana to Joe Henderson and Mickey Hart, was nominated for a Grammy last year for producing It's About Time" by the great timbalero Orestes Vilat. She's composed for salsa groups, big bands and string quartet. But Suite Afro-Cubano" is her first work for orchestra. She talked about the piece by phone from her Forest Hill home before heading off to teach at City College of San Francisco, where she's a music professor.