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ARUÁN ORTIZ CUB(AN)ISM

  • The Lilypad 1353 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 (map)

Aruán Ortiz, an active figure in the progressive jazz and avant-garde scene in the US for more than two decades, presents at the Lilypad Gallery his solo piano program Cub(an)ism.

His music integrates an array of influences from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Haitian traditions, avant-garde, progressive jazz, and contemporary classical language.

He has written music for jazz ensembles, classical orchestras, dance companies, classical chamber groups, and feature films. His music has been lauded as "a solid and unique new sound in today’s jazz world" by Matthew Fiander in PopMatters; "one of the most creative and original composers in the world" by Lynn René Bailey in The Art Music Lounge; and "an experimentalist and a tonal provocateur, influenced by European modernism and contemporary jazz as much as by Afro-Cuban tradition" by Giovanni Russonello in the New York Times.

His dozens of albums as a leader have been featured in major publications worldwide, including The Guardian UK, Expresso, Portugal, The New York Times, JazzTimes, Rolling Stone Magazine, Billboard, and he has collaborated in more than 30 recordings as a sideman. He has also recorded/toured with jazz artists such as Wallace Roney, Terri Lyne Carrington, Wadada Leo Smith, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Esperanza Spalding, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Cindy Blackman-Santana, Andrew Cyrille and many others.

with Francisco Mela & Tony Malaby