FELIPE CABRERA – MIRROR (EN)

Mirror is Felipe Cabrera’s fourth album (under his name). More personal, this autobiographical record retraces the story of a life, that of its composer.

Born in Havana to a family of music lovers, this child of the revolution received a classical training in the conservatory of his hometown. Destined to be a Classical bassoonist, it was on an altogether different instrument that Felipe was soon to rise to fame. In 1984, at a moment’s notice, he stood in for the double bassist in Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s band. He didn’t just change instrument; he actually changed his destiny. He toured the world and accompanied some of the greatest; Tata Guines, Frank Emilio Flynn or the young Roberto Fonseca to name just three.

Thirteen years and eight albums later, in 1997, he decided to start all over again by moving to Paris. Little by little he joined the Latino milieu of Paris, notching up studio sessions and playing with Raul Paz and Orlando Poleo and later with Miguel Anga Diaz and Alfredo Rodriguez, two musicians to whom he remained faithful to the end. Felipe made a name for himself and perfected his sound. “Arriving in Paris, I was able to play with Africans, with other jazzmen, and with the various cultures that can be found in France. Without my Cuban training, it wouldn’t have been easy to interact with all those styles.”

Through this Mirror, Felipe Cabrera reconciles the myriad facets that comprise his singular personality: the popular and the erudite, the attachment to Cuba and the openness to elsewhere. In Cuba, he was already an excellent musician. For the past twenty years, he’s been more than that. With an ear constantly attuned to a world brim-full of sound, he remains nonetheless intimately connected with the fertile soil of his origins, that deep furrow that he fully intends to fertilise with his own ideas. You have to listen to this album, the fourth released under his own name, with that kind of ear. Felipe Cabrera’s composition for Mirror is precise and original, the melodies coming back like a leitmotif in classical music, but while classical music gives him a general framework, he also abandons himself to the free expression of jazz.

To create this album Felipe Cabrera has surrounded himself with his longtime companions: Leonardo Montana on piano, Irving Acao on tenor saxophone and Lukmil Perez on drums.