Bassist/Composer Alexis Cuadrado to premiére Jazz Miniatures for Double Quartet A Residency Commission from The Jazz Gallery
Performances at the Jazz Gallery
Friday June 22nd and Saturday June 23rd, 2012
Located at 290 Hudson Street, NYC
Featuring: Ben Wendel (saxophones and bassoon), Jason Rigby (saxophones, flutes and clarinets), Satoshi Takeishi (drums and percussion), Sara Caswell (violin), Antonia Nelson (violin), Lois Martin (viola), Jody Redhage (cello) and Alexis Cuadrado - bass
With his new work, Jazz Miniatures for Double Quartet, Alexis Cuadrado continues to define his compositional voice following his recent impressive works, A Lorca Soundscape and Noneto Ibérico. With this Jazz Gallery Residency Commission (performances on June 22nd & 23rd), Cuadrado takes a new musical step, this time with strings, exploring the intersection of jazz, flamenco and new chamber music.
Cuadrado elaborates: “My main goal as a composer is to write music that feeds the soul and the brain equally. With Jazz Miniatures I'm looking for a new challenge. I'm writing for a string quartet, which in its own has an amazing history, from Mozart and Beethoven to Bartok, Shostakovich, Ravel and Debussy, arriving at Philip Glass, Steve Reich and beyond; and on the other hand I have a jazz quartet without piano or guitar formed with some of the coolest improvisers in NYC. I'm also nurturing my Flamenco and New Music influences and balancing it all out with this series of seemingly disparate vignettes."
If you're wondering what Große Fugue, Ornette Coleman, Hungarian Gypsy music, Flamenco master vocalist Camarón de la Isla and the Beatles' Piggies have in common, you just might hear it in Alexis' Jazz Miniatures for Double Quartet.
“Alexis Cuadrado is a bassist/composer/bandleader after my own heart. He's going for something personal, accessing folk music of his native country and continuing to add to and expand the definition of the word 'jazz'. I'm a fan." —Bassist/Composer Ben Allison
About Alexis Cuadrado
Barcelona-born Alexis Cuadrado is one of the most sought-after musicians in the New York jazz scene. His most recent recording, Noneto Ibérico (2011) has been recently published to critical acclaim. His newest project A Lorca Soundscape, a commission by Chamber Music America featuring vocalist Claudia Acuña and saxophonist Miguel Zenón, was recently premiered in NYC, broadcasted world-wide through NPR music and featured on WNYC's “Soundcheck" with John Schaeffer and NPR's “JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater" (air date, May 24).
Cuadrado has three other CDs as a leader: Puzzles (2008), Visual (2004) and Metro (2001), which include original compositions and have received enthusiastic reactions from critics and fans alike.
He has excellent credits as a sideman, with recording appearances and performances with such greats as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bruce Barth, Ben Monder, Perico Sambeat, Mark Turner, Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N'Dour, Dianne Reeves, Omara Portuondo, Steve Wilson, or Seamus Blake amongst many others. He currently keeps busy freelancing with different bands around the world.
Alexis is also a devoted educator and a current faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC, and teaches worldwide as a guest lecturer.
Cuadrado is a founder of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a 10 bandleader/composer collective that strives to promote originality and create awareness of innovative jazz artists in Brooklyn, and a co-owner of the record label Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.
Performances at the Jazz Gallery
Friday June 22nd and Saturday June 23rd, 2012
Located at 290 Hudson Street, NYC
Featuring: Ben Wendel (saxophones and bassoon), Jason Rigby (saxophones, flutes and clarinets), Satoshi Takeishi (drums and percussion), Sara Caswell (violin), Antonia Nelson (violin), Lois Martin (viola), Jody Redhage (cello) and Alexis Cuadrado - bass
With his new work, Jazz Miniatures for Double Quartet, Alexis Cuadrado continues to define his compositional voice following his recent impressive works, A Lorca Soundscape and Noneto Ibérico. With this Jazz Gallery Residency Commission (performances on June 22nd & 23rd), Cuadrado takes a new musical step, this time with strings, exploring the intersection of jazz, flamenco and new chamber music.
Cuadrado elaborates: “My main goal as a composer is to write music that feeds the soul and the brain equally. With Jazz Miniatures I'm looking for a new challenge. I'm writing for a string quartet, which in its own has an amazing history, from Mozart and Beethoven to Bartok, Shostakovich, Ravel and Debussy, arriving at Philip Glass, Steve Reich and beyond; and on the other hand I have a jazz quartet without piano or guitar formed with some of the coolest improvisers in NYC. I'm also nurturing my Flamenco and New Music influences and balancing it all out with this series of seemingly disparate vignettes."
If you're wondering what Große Fugue, Ornette Coleman, Hungarian Gypsy music, Flamenco master vocalist Camarón de la Isla and the Beatles' Piggies have in common, you just might hear it in Alexis' Jazz Miniatures for Double Quartet.
“Alexis Cuadrado is a bassist/composer/bandleader after my own heart. He's going for something personal, accessing folk music of his native country and continuing to add to and expand the definition of the word 'jazz'. I'm a fan." —Bassist/Composer Ben Allison
About Alexis Cuadrado
Barcelona-born Alexis Cuadrado is one of the most sought-after musicians in the New York jazz scene. His most recent recording, Noneto Ibérico (2011) has been recently published to critical acclaim. His newest project A Lorca Soundscape, a commission by Chamber Music America featuring vocalist Claudia Acuña and saxophonist Miguel Zenón, was recently premiered in NYC, broadcasted world-wide through NPR music and featured on WNYC's “Soundcheck" with John Schaeffer and NPR's “JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater" (air date, May 24).
Cuadrado has three other CDs as a leader: Puzzles (2008), Visual (2004) and Metro (2001), which include original compositions and have received enthusiastic reactions from critics and fans alike.
He has excellent credits as a sideman, with recording appearances and performances with such greats as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bruce Barth, Ben Monder, Perico Sambeat, Mark Turner, Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N'Dour, Dianne Reeves, Omara Portuondo, Steve Wilson, or Seamus Blake amongst many others. He currently keeps busy freelancing with different bands around the world.
Alexis is also a devoted educator and a current faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC, and teaches worldwide as a guest lecturer.
Cuadrado is a founder of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a 10 bandleader/composer collective that strives to promote originality and create awareness of innovative jazz artists in Brooklyn, and a co-owner of the record label Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.
For more information contact Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity.
