Alfredo Rodriguez ← THE MATRIX of FABULOUS DISCOVERIES

Alfredo Rodriguez is within worldlined steps of artists around the planet, in reach of everybody everywhere per the same seemingly miraculous small-world principle which dictates that there are between most human beings on earth 6 or fewer degrees of separation.

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We founded this matrix in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia — mindful that when all artists can be steps away, the dispossessed here can be too.

ma·trix /ˈmātriks - originally "source", from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!

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Who I Am & Where I Live

Name: Alfredo Rodriguez
City: Brooklyn, New York
Country: United States
Hometown: Havana, Cuba

My Life & Work

Bio: Alfredo Rodríguez is a 32 year old pianist born in Havana, Cuba. Classically trained as a boy, at 15 he heard a recording of Keith Jarett's The Köln Concert, and his life was changed.

Selected to play the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival, he was invited to a gathering at the house of Claude Nobs, who asked him if he would play for Quincy Jones. He played his own arrangement of "I Love You", a Cole Porter tune, and Mr. Jones told Mr. Rodríguez he wanted to work with him.

But it wasn't a magic carpet ride to recognition. Alfredo defected from Cuba, travelling to Mexico in 2009. He waded across the Rio Grande with a suitcase containing nothing but several T-shirts and his compostions. He was arrested by border police, and when questioned told them truth: He was here to work with Quincy Jones and start a career. He was eventually put into a cab and sent on his way.

Re: Alfredo's record Sounds of Space... "The original title comes from a quote about music by José Martí, a Cuban writer and poet whose work has really touched me and influenced my work," explains Rodríguez. "Unfortunately, it didn’t sound as good in English as a title, so we chose a different tack. But Marti’s line says it all: 'Lo verdadero es lo que no termina: y la música está perpetuamente palpitando en el espacio.' That which is true never ends, and music is perpetually beating in space."