Alfredo Rodriguez@Vibrato’s 03.22.11
By George W. Harris

If Quincy Jones is saying that a jazz pianist is worth hearing, then
you’d better be sure that Alfredo Rodriguez has something to offer.
Before a packed well-heeled crowd at Herb Alpert’s swank club, Mr.
Rodriguez, along with his symbiotic team of Ricardo Rodriguez/b and
Henry Cole/dr delivered just three songs during their 1 ¼ hour set, but
each song took the audience on panoramic sonic journeys that were a
feast for the ears, heart and feet.

The opening “Silencio” hushed the audience with the leader brooding
over a solo piano which changed in meter, tempo and dynamics, while the
bass and drum slowly entered and conversed with Rodriguez, taking the
music through different moods as if one were traversing through various
Cuban neighborhoods: calm and tranquil, then suddenly dramatically hip
hopping and sizzling. With the bass creating rivulets of grooves,
Rodriguez’s piano went from Lisztian rhapsodies to visceral wavelike
climaxes, slowly releasing like the tide after a storm. The following
“Vente Ani” featured an agonizingly and romantic slow tango that
undulated like long lost lovers, with both Rodriguezes plucking their
respective strings to a timeless tempo. By the time of the closing
“Transculturation” (from his debut release), with the trio’s aggressive
and empathetically percussive interplay, the audience realized that
they had witnessed something beyond the ordinary. The piano trio, a
long time stalwart of jazz, had been taken to a higher plane this full
mooned evening in Bel Air.