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Kind: News, Opinion Music Genre: Piano Categories: Entertainment, Arts, Culture, Music Published: January 5, 2010

Hiding Solo Jazz Pianist Revealed on Dedicated Excavations

By ANDERSON RILEY

Jazz pianist and composer Alvaro Is Rojas represents the mysterious on the world jazz scene. He has successfully escaped from the mainstream scene for nearly forty years, at least if the standard of gig frequency is set by his more famous contemporaries, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett. Yet, where these aforementioned piano greats have been accepted as trendsetters a long time ago, Rojas represents his own independent and not-yet-exhausted branch and should be treated accordingly. This is not to say Rojas - or any of the others - should receive acclaim no matter what their musical output is, a common mistake in the field today, but that any critique of the music needs to be authored with the highest musical standards as a reference. Rojas has never been signed by a significant American record label before his three relatively new releases on Blue Music Group, and this could partly explain his absence. But it is moreover the fact that he has been busy on the European scene as a strict solo pianist that has hardly made his social noticeability pass the bare minimum. But for those who care about creative music, Rojas is indeed a big revelation.

Alvaro Is Rojas was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1946. He has lived in Stockholm, Sweden since the late 1960s, and been established as a highly popular educator in Scandinavia for decades. After having completed classical piano and composition studies at the Barcelona Conservatory, he worked as a touring music director for vocalist Josephine Baker. He later studied at Berklee College of Music with John LaPorta and Herb Pomeroy, and worked with electronic music in New York in the late 70s. In the early 80s, Rojas returned to Stockholm for a position as a professor at the Royal College of Music. In recent years, he has given seminars and made a string of dedicated solo recordings of considerable quality.

On his latest album, Duende, Rojas offers personal editions of jazz standards and popular songs, seamlessly combined with his original compositions. Some of his playing reflects songwriting trends of the 1960s, Burt Bacharach and Elton John come to mind, and at times classical styles from the Cold War era, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, but it is all cooked into his own gem of harmonically intriguing rendering. Duende contains introspective dimensions filled with nearly child-like excitement. This offers the listener a stretch to what jazz solo piano and improvisation can be. Rojas' sound is exquisite and passionate, and the many free improvisations which serve as mood painting introductions, conquer miles from the classical territory into the jazz domain. Most importantly, however, his persona is deeply involved in order to achieve the most energetic perfection.

Rojas and Duende are also a healthy reminder of the European origin of the genre known as Latin music. The word Duende was originally used in Spanish performing arts, especially Flamenco, referring to "soul" and a deep involvement of emotion, expression and authenticity, all which are naturally present here in the basic subscription. Technically speaking there is a European aspect to Rojas' art: He seldom slurs, he works his ideas high resolution image-style paying attention to every detail in the midst of blazing spontaneity. Still, there is a lot of blues, bebop and something very Spanish of strong temperament about his playing. If it weren't as complete by itself, one could say Rojas likes to embark on trips of percussive and rhythmic contrasts à la Chick Corea, but a careful listener soon notices that the Corea aspect here is more a reversed fact, and for Rojas this is a home base from where he needs to escape to various locations in space and time in order not to be trapped by his rich native culture.

Rojas is a standalone experience of seldom witnessed caliber. Due to his immense skills in hiding from the jazz media and world concert stages, his style has not been copied by younger upcoming artists. After Duende and his other two releases on Blue Music Group, El Arte de la Vida and Early Recordings, all this is bound to change. Rojas contributes with a fresh solution for musicians and fans who may think the ink of jazz has dried in the 20th century. This solo pianist proves that there's much more to be excavated in the vernacular of western music alone.

alvaroisrojas.bluemusicgroup.com

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