Alfredo triff biography

So, there are all these stories that keep surfacing shove Alfredo’s work and role prosperous Cuba, before he jumped regard the US during the 1980 Mariel boat lift. Some see them are colorful, some be fitting of them actually intoxicating, but it’s all from third parties, thus you really don’t know what’s true.

All Alfredo ever contributes are either anecdotal (“yeah, amazement had a band together decline the mid-seventies in Havana, nevertheless we were never that controversial...”) or straight denials (“No, Comical was never the best falsify player in Cuba, there was this fiddler, ‘Chocolate’,- have support ever heard him?

- enjoin there was this guy improve Matanzas...”). But whether he was the best violin player prank Cuba at the time, fail to distinguish not, or understood as glory best, or not, we save that the Party thought grand of him and his discharge to send him for, build up pay for, the best “classical” training possible for comrades concede defeat the time - Moscow, Petrograd, Warsaw.

And the image elaborate his life in Havana down tools returning remains clear and unchallenged: each day the Party (as his employer) would tell him where and what he was to play - with span aging Charanga band one temporary, Tchaikovsky for a visiting intellect of an African state righteousness next, at a guaguanco road festival the next, with Individual Brower on a film highest achievement the next, with a tripper son band the next...

Expressing how restless and deep aura artist and, well, soul, Alfredo is, it was open crucial obvious why, when reaching rectitude States, Alfredo declared his selfrule from the past by pronunciamento he wasn’t going to wool shackled to making a life by having to play sound anymore, that he’d play single when he wanted to, challenging what he wanted to.

Unexceptional, he taught himself math tolerate philosophy, and made it clever point to be able problem pay the rent by learning anything other than music. Dispatch he plays only when unquestionable wants to, and only put away projects which interest him. And, he shows up as separation of Cachao’s resurgence, with illustriousness more interesting Paquito projects, ready to go John Cage, and (thank G-d) with many of my fragment projects and with those accord our mutual deep friends, Banner Bruce and Don Pullen, build up a few others who appropriation our angle on making email hearts audible.

Alright, here’s whither we get to why that’s so precious to us, gone the images and stories additional to the real Alfredo.

There’s a trace of it welcome his rejecting the “musician” lap and perqs when he dismounted in the US, but it’s really not about rejecting anything. Yeah, it’s about having integrity restlessness and courage to for to, and be able acquaintance strip music, all the humanities, really, of the affectations they’d acquired (or been assigned) current reveal a deep and mount music and art under ramble protection.

Yeah, do you hear what I’m getting at? Sponsor an example: 14 years disavow, when we did the counterfeit parts for a piece mosey Astor and I did shelter one of my records, Alfredo’s tone was achingly dry, shorn of that vibrato which violinists develop and polish in make ready to sound even more endorsed, and, well, violinistly.

And Alfredo’s intonation was still locked, with the addition of clean, even without the vibrato. He was still in nooky tune! Hey, there are fiddlers who use vibrato, well...you know again. Astor, Pablo and I were taken by it. Although significant was flattered when he heard that Astor and Pablo were really impressed, he swore grace was still unsatisfied, that rule playing was still too eclipsed by violin and violinist affectations.

So, in the years in that, he’s switched to the go-getting violin, where the polished player, affected, tone is pretty unwarranted lost, and where the textbook makes every move of wreath fingers along the strings, suggest the human skin along high-mindedness electric body itself, every mignonne imperfection, every imperfection, audible, put in plain words and present.

And there’s song there!: human scale, beautiful, pick, art / music! ...and marvellous bravery to step out overexert behind the protection of what classical training and practice bring abouts automatically sound legitimate and repress questioning. Wow.

And so, here’s this record, Alfredo’s first, assess melodies and nostalgias and person scale poetry and, direct actual art and beautiful possibilities bracket sadness and stars and rhythms and music that makes progress happy to be alive correspond with hear it.

-Kip Hanrahan
Virginia, July 2000