Elio Villafranca once again demonstrates why he’s at the forefront of the generation....

With the release of The Source In Between, Elio Villafranca once again demonstrates why he’s at the forefront of the generation of remarkable Cuban pianists, composers and bandleaders that for several years has been making major creative contributions to the international development of modern jazz. Leading a core quartet featuring tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Jeff Carney and the Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, Villafranca presents a program of nine originals and a Latin re-mix of the CD’s title track that goes a step beyond the stylistic terrain he explored on Incantations/Encantaciones, his solo recording debut from 2003 that was named one of that year’s top 50 jazz CDs by JazzTimes.

While Villafranca’s first album adapted Afro Cuban and other indigenous Latin American music styles to a modern jazz context, this new recording maintains a balance between the authentic Cuban pianism that distinguishes Latin jazz and the straight-ahead playing characteristic of bebop and subsequent modern styles in the U.S. yet avoids the conventional in both genres – in fact there are moments that flirt with free jazz. Yet the presence on The Source In Between of complex rhythms and elements of the Latin styles that defined his first CD reveals the pianist has not abandoned his native roots. And the instrumental textures and dimensions of his compositions -- while as modern as any jazz being created today – also pay tribute to the modern jazz legacy of the brilliant composer Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso instrumentalist John Coltrane and other North American jazz masters. This year Mr. Villafranca was honored by BMI with the BMI Jazz Guaranty Award.

Born in the Pinar del Río province of Western Cuba, Villafranca was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Since his arrival in the U.S. in late 1995, he has been involved in jazz and Latin jazz scenes on both the East and West Coasts. Inspired by jazz and other musical genres that developed as a result of the African Diaspora, Villafranca creates original cultural and musical fusions notable for their spirited, groundbreaking innovations and has composed and arranged original soundtracks for PBS documentaries and a variety of independent films.

Based in New York City he is resident professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Over the years his Quartet has included as members with Grammy nominated Blue Note recording artists guitarist Pat Martino and the Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnett and trumpeter Terell Stafford, among other notable instrumentalists, and has performed in New York City at the Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and other venues.

As a sideman Villafranca has collaborated sideman with leading jazz and Latin jazz artists including: Wynton Marsalis; Jon Faddis; Sonny Fortune; Dave Valentin; Lenny White; Horacio "El Negro" Hernández; Ralph Peterson; Giovanni Hidalgo; Eddie Henderson; Miguel Zenón; Cándido Camero; and Johnny Pacheco, among others. Villafranca toured Europe with Bunnett (in The Spirits of Havana) and Martino (in the Pat Martino Quintet) and performed with each at various world-renowned venues and events including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium; in Italy at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia; and at the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Holland.

April 2010 dates
•15th Jane Bunnett and The Cuban Piano Masters, featuring Guillermo Rubalcaba, Hilario Duran, and Elio Villafranca-Dominion-Chalmers United Church, Ottawa, ON Canada

•17th Jane Bunnett and The Cuban Piano Masters, featuring Guillermo Rubalcaba, Hilario Duran, and Elio Villafranca-The Royal Conservatory-Koerner Hall, Toronto, ON Canada

•23rd Pleneros de la 21 – Bomba & Plena In the House at Julia de Burgos (10 am)

•30th Pleneros de la 21 – PS88 School, Bronx NYC (8:30 and 9:15 am)

May 2010 dates
•1st Pleneros de la 21 – Bombaplenazo & Plena, TBA (7:30 pm – 12 Midnight)

•14th Pleneros de la 21 - Bomba & Plena In the House at Julia de Burgos (10 am & 12 Noon)

•15th Elio Villafranca Quintet, Barbados (TBA)

•23rd Pleneros de la 21 - Fiesta de Cruz in Brooklyn (2 – 5 pm)