Group’s signature high-voltage fusion sound was developed while listening to forbidden American music growing up in Havana
VENTURA — Three-time Grammy-nominated Cuban jazz combo Tiempo Libre will headline Ventura Music Festival’s annual Sunday afternoon outdoor jazz concert on May 6 at the Ventura College Green on Telegraph Road in Ventura, festival organizers reported in a media release.
Recently featured on “Dancing with the Stars,” Tiempo Libre exudes an uninhibited energy, projected through an infectious, danceable timba sound – a sophisticated mix of Afro-Cuban, American jazz and traditional classical music, festival organizers reported. Their unique sound was cultivated while growing up in Havana studying classical music at premiere conservatories and, at the same time, listening to forbidden American music.
Tiempo Libre’s vibrant music is imbued with its seven members’ fight for freedom, developed as teenagers who secretly disregarded government censorship of American music during Cuba’s “Special Period” in the 1990s.
“We made our own antenna,” said band leader Jorge Gómez.”We listened to everything.”
Gómez’ father was a great Cuban classical pianist, who encouraged his talented son to learn either violin or piano. Gómez chose piano and went on to study at one of Cuba’s finest music conservatories, but the training was strictly classical, with no American or traditional Cuban music allowed.
Lured by bits of contemporary American music he and his conservatory friends would hear now and then, they wanted more. Risking steep fines, he and several of his friends got together to rig makeshift radios from instructions in a military-issue guidebook and frequency map, using coat hangers, aluminum foil and cables for antennas.
According to Gómez, he and his friends stayed up late many a night, after the state radio stations went off the air, to listen to Miami broadcasts of the songs of Michael Jackson; Earth, Wind and Fire; Chaka Khan; and Gloria Estefan.
The friends eventually formed Tiempo Libre, developing a sound that fused Afro-Cuban beats with jazz rhythms and classical forms, all permeated with the spirit of its members’ strong desire for freedom.
“We don’t only play our music. We play our life. We play our dreams,” Gómez said.
In 2005, Tiempo Libre was discovered by IMG Artists’ Managing Director Elizabeth Sobol, known for cultivating the careers of such classical greats as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Sir James Gallway and Renee Fleming. Listening to an early Tiempo Libre demo, she was blown away by what she describes as “sheer exuberance that jumps off the stage…that comes directly through their music.” Since then she and IMG have helped catapult the band to American stardom.
The group’s members made it to Miami through different routes and have since been based in its Cuban community while spreading their music throughout the U.S. and the world. They have toured with such notables as Arturo Sandoval, shared a bill with such stars as Aretha Franklin and Joshua Bell, and performed in such prominent venues as the Lincoln Center and Hollywood Bowl, as well as being featured on “Dancing with the Stars” and “Live from Lincoln Center” on PBS TV.
“This will be a high-energy, fun concert, perfect for bringing family and friends, a picnic lunch and beach chairs or towels to enjoy one of the hottest young Latin jazz bands out there today,” said Cheryl Heitmann, executive director.
Tiempo Libre’s most recent album, “My Secret Radio,” released in 2011, celebrates the band’s journey from secretly recording American music on Havana rooftops to their American success. The group’s 2009 “Bach in Havana” recording features their fiercely intense Afro-Cuban jazz rhythms mixed with classical forms, a favorite of Ventura Music Festival’s artistic director, Nuvi Mehta.
Opening for Tiempo Libre is exciting jazz newcomer, Alfredo Rodriguez, pianist and composer, also from Cuba, who has been wowing audiences since his discovery by producer Quincy Jones 2 ½ years ago.
In a former interview Quincy Jones said, “He is very special, and I do not say that easily because I have been surrounded by the best musicians in the world my entire life.”
Rodriguez will perform with the Alfredo Rodriguez Trio, its music mixing elements of avant-jazz with Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and African music. Rodriguez has earned reviews at major events such as the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, as well as performances at international festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, Umbria in Italy, Montreux in Switzerland, Mawazine in Morocco, Mundo Latino in Brazil and Tag Heuer Shanghai Jazz and Blues Week in China.
Rodriguez’ move to the U.S. came in 2009, after a performance in Mexico when he flew to Laredo and was arrested and held by the border police. Said Rodriguez, “I had nothing: a suitcase with a sweater, a pair of jeans and my music.” He went on to say that when they interviewed him he told them the truth – he was coming to write, to play music and to work with Quincy Jones and start his career. He told them, “If you turn me back, I’ll be back tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, until I can make it through.” The police talked among themselves, put him in a cab and sent him on his way.
For the Festival concert, Alfredo Rodriguez will include selections from his debut recording, “Sounds of Space,” co-produced with Quincy Jones.
What: Ventura Music Festival’s Tiempo Libre with opener Alfredo Rodriguez
When: 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6
Where: Ventura College Green, 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura, CA
Cost: $45/ $35, youth $15
Tickets: www.venturamusicfestival.org or 805-648-3146