34 JULY09 // Jazzwise

ondon’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, May:Roberto Fonseca is leaning away from hispiano, head tipped back like a lizard in the

sun, fingers kneading a sound that’s muscular,swirling, percussive. His long-time quartet – includingbassist Omar González, drummer Ramsés Rodriguezand collaborative partner Javier Zalba – keep up afierce, self-assured groove, underscoring just whythis Cuban phenomenon has been compared withthe likes of McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock.

Thirty-five-year-old Fonseca has been dazzlingEurope for a while now. All the extensive touring onthe back of his album from two years ago, Zamazu,along with regular local performances at venuesincluding Havana jazz club Zorro y el Cuervo (‘TheFox And The Crow’), has lent the celebrated pianistfurther depth and texture. While still very much anensemble player Fonseca seems to be stepping uphis solos, revelling in his gifts for melody andlyricism, form and timing, for subtlety, intimacy andinnovation.

All of which are evident on his new albumAkokan, a self-produced affair that was recorded latelast year in Havana’s legendary EGREM studios.Like the earlier album, it manages to be eclectic andadventurous while still boasting tunes you canwhistle. Like it – and indeed, Fonseca’s oeuvre – thenew album comes to jazz via soul and funk and theAfro-Cuban rhythms of his country. “Jazz lets mestretch my imagination,” he says. “Music shouldnever be confined.”

Akokan brings the magic, strength andimprovisation from a Fonseca live show to the studio.“My band and I have been together for 12 years nowand our relationship is telepathic, I swear it,” Fonsecasays, in halting English the day after the show.“We’re going further all the time. The chemistry wehave really does encourage creativity. The hardest bitfor me was choosing which tracks to include.” Hepauses and sighs. “All the music I compose is a partof me,” he says with a shrug. “It’s like having tochoose between your children.”

The new album moves from pretty lullabies andsoulful Ibrahim Ferrer-inspired son to Coltranefreefalls and shimmying, thundering dance music; attimes Fonseca uses his voice – seeminglyinvoluntarily – to emphasise a particular emotionalhighpoint. “I’d like to go back in time and change themistakes I made so that those who love me could beeven happier,” writes Fonseca, who dedicates acouple of tracks to his beloved mother Mercedes –with whom he still lives in a modest three-bedroomhouse in Vedado, a pleasant neighbourhood ofHavana.

Where Zamazu included cameos from a range ofbig name talent from Brazilian percussionistCarlinhos Brown to Buena Vista stalwarts OmaraPortuondo, the late Cachaito Lopez and the lateIbrahim Ferrer (along with a cover of AbdullahIbrahim’s ‘Ishmael’), Akokan leaves off the elderstates people in favour of two special guest vocalists:Cape Verdean chanteuse and rising world music starMayra Andrade and the hugely talented AfricanAmerican/Argentinian singer-songwriter Raul Midón –who lends his Donny Hathaway-influenced voice and

fine guitar skills to his own ‘Everyone Deserves aSecond Chance’, deftly arranged by Fonseca.

Twenty-four-year-old Andrade wrote and singsthe lyrics to the beautiful, hymn-like ‘Sieta Potencias’,a song dedicated “to the saints, to those who havepassed away, and to Mother Earth, where we allcome from.” Despite living and working in Paris andgrowing up, variously, in Senegal, Angola andGermany, Andrade was actually born in Cuba; hereher playful, caressing voice is the perfectaccompaniment for Fonseca’s inspired harmonicstructures.

Two nights previously, at a small showcase forAndrade at Le China in Paris, Fonseca isnamechecked (“I am so grateful he is here”) butspends much of her set looking bored. Andrade’sgolden tonsils and dreamy, sambafied sound are

perhaps too smooth for a musician who lists JohnColtrane, Miles Davis and Arsenio Rodriguez amonghis major influences. “The record company,” he sayswhen asked how their collaboration came about,before stepping away to pose for photos alongsideAndrade. Asked about Midón, he lights up: “Amazing.I hope we can work more together.”

Back home in Havana – the capital of a countrymarking 50 years of revolucion – Fonseca has longbeen regarded as the future of Cuban music, eversince he made his live solo debut at Havana’s JazzPlaza International Festival aged 15. His musicalleanings were nurtured early, legacy of a family withrhythm in their DNA and a Castro-implementededucation system that identifies talent at a young ageand channels them into performing arts schools(where, sadly, termites have chewed their waythrough many a baby grand). Roberto Alain FonsecaCortés studied at the Guillermo Tomas School ofMusic in the Guanabocoa municipality, before goingon to complete a degree in piano and musicalcomposition at the National School of Art.

“I was born into a musical family and my firstmaestro was mi casa [‘my home’],” says Fonseca,whose father Roberto Fonseca Senior played thedrums and whose mother Mercedes Cortes (whose acappella voice opens both Zamazu and Akokan) wasa professional dancer and singer – and a womanwho was briefly married to none other than ChuchoValdés, the great Cuban pianist bandleader andfounder of jazz supergroup Irakere. His two elderhalf-brothers, Emilio and Chuchito, are a drummerand pianist now based in America and Mexico.

“My older brothers used to play a lot of funk andsoul and my mum used to sing bolero and sonmontuno all day. I had so much fun. It all happenedvery naturally. I started playing drum kit at the age offour and my first job was as a drummer.” A drummer,as it happens for a Beatles cover band. “I beganstudying piano when I was eight. It’s a morecomplete instrument. You can use it to makemelodies or harmonies or as the rhythm section.Once I realised that there was no stopping me,” saysFonseca, whose percussive style links back to theseformative years.

“I wasn’t a great student, though,” he continueswith a grin. “I didn’t do my homework and my parentswere always pushing me, until the day I realised thatmusic was really my thing. Then I got more serious.”He studied Beethoven and Bach but along with hisfellow students became obsessed with Americanjazz. “The one album that was life changing for mewas Standards Vol 1 and 2 by Keith Jarrett. Iremember that cassette was regarded as something

SPIRIT OF CHANGO

L

Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca cuts quite a dash with his contemporary montuno stylings. First spottedtouring internationally with the Buena Vista Social Club after appearing on disc 10 years ago. On newalbum Akokan he moves from Ibrahim Ferrer-inspired son to Coltrane-inspired improvisations andbeyond with a few additional tracks featuring singers Mayra Andrade and the highly-rated Raul Midón.Interview: Jane Cornwell

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