David Virelles

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David Virelles ( German Jazz Festival 2013)

David Virelles González (born November 10, 1983 in Santiago de Cuba ) is a Cuban jazz pianist .

Live and act

Virelles grew up in a family of musicians in Cuba; his father is a singer-songwriter and his mother a flutist in the Symphony Orchestra of Santiago de Cuba. At the age of seven he began classical piano training; through his grandfather's record collection, he became interested in jazz . In 2001 he moved to Canada, where Jane Bunnett became his mentor and allowed him to work on several of her albums. He studied at Humber College in Toronto , where Oscar Peterson personally presented him with the first Oscar Peterson Prize . In 2006 he won the Grand Prix de Jazz at the Montréal Jazz Festival . In 2007 he released his debut album Motion on Justin Time Records ; private tuition with Barry Harris , Steve Coleman , Stanley Cowell and Muhal Richard Abrams followed .

In 2009 Virelles moved to New York City to study composition with Henry Threadgill . He recorded the album Continuum ( Pi Recordings , 2012) (mostly) in a quartet with Ben Street , Andrew Cyrille and Jonathan Finlayson . In 2011 he worked on Chris Potter's ECM album The Sirens . Also, Tomasz Stanko and Steve Coleman took him to their bands. In his project Mbókò , which he presented at the Moers Festival in 2016 with Thomas Morgan , Eric McPherson and percussionist Román Díaz , “he goes in search of traces of old, ritual Afro-Cuban music, translates these elements into the present day and with great musical intelligence creates something that can be called ›New World Music‹ in the best sense of the word. ”In 2017 he presented the album Ghosts to ECM , which pursues a comparable approach with a larger ensemble and aims at“ futuristic Afro-American chamber music ”.

In 2015 he won the Down Beat Critic's Poll in the “Rising Star” category.

Discographic notes

  • David Virelles: Igbó Alákọrin (The Singer's Grove) Vol. I & II (Pi Recordings, 2018)

Web links

Commons : David Virelles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Raul D'Gama Rosae: Review of the album at All About Jazz
  2. ↑ a b Continuum at Pi Recordings
  3. ↑ Program (Moers 2016) ( Memento from May 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Meeting (vinyl fan)
personal data
SURNAME Virelles, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Virelles González, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Cuba