Ramón Valle has become known as ’the Other Face of Cuban Jazz’, his style combines Jazz, Classical, and the music of Cuba, his homeland! “The Time Is Now” is his 10th recording as a leader. He has been recording and performing professionally for over 30 years. He has been living in Holland for over 20 years and continues to perform all over the world. This new CD is perhaps his finest to date.

On the new release Ramon Valle plays piano, Fender Rhodes & vocoder, he is joined by Omar Rodriguez Calvo on bass and Jamie Peet on drums. Joining the trio is the phenomenal Roy Hargrove, the 6 time Grammy nominated and two time Grammy winner plays trumpet or fluegelhorn on 4 tunes. 

Ramon Valle is classically trained and blends his Cuban heritage with the spirit of Jazz improvisation in both his playing and his original arrangements and compositions. The Time Is Now features nine Ramon Valle originals plus a very special treatment of Michael Jackson‘s classic‚”Don‘t Stop Til’ You Get Enough” and one more from Pablo Milanes. 

Ramón Valle’s oeuvre falls into the jazz category, yet touches many other genres, and borders on many other musical forms. Like most jazz musicians, he believes in taking risks and says, “We have the mission to translate the music to the people.” The piano is his instrument of choice, but he sees it more like a choir or a mini orchestra, with a combination of chords that can make any sound he wants. Jazz has always mixed with other cultures, other sounds and musical styles, which the Argentine writer Julio Cortazar once defined:as being “…like a bird that migrates or emigrates or transmigrates; it is rain and bread and salt, something completely beyond national ritual, sacred traditions, language and folklore: a cloud without frontiers, a spy of air and water…that brings Mexicans together with Norwegians and Russians and Spaniards.”

With this new recording, Ramon Valle takes on the role of musical time traveler, as he experiences and interprets, from an up close and personal vantage, the music that is happening today. His inspiration came from watching music videos with his children; Dayla, 7, and Fabio, 10. Younger artists like Rihanna, Bruno Mars, various rappers, and Michael Jackson, who he describes as ’the greatest.’ “That gave me the idea to explore what it is that moves this timeless generation. And what they are trying to express with their music.” 

Constantly searching for freedom and communication in his compositions and original arrangements, he set off on an odyssey in search of the source, which he says, “functions as the engine”, exploring with his third eye, fine-tuned ears and heart. “Children are only interested in the present, not the past nor the future. This music is about right now. The possibilities of the internet have created a universal intelligence that is growing at an unrivaled speed, and therefore, young people, continue to surprise us with many ideas, improving and improvising as they go along.” 

All of the compositions are connected to this theme, with nine originals penned by the piano virtuoso. “I didn’t want to go from tune to tune, so the challenge was to listen, then create something from a nice groove, so I could take the music further, and transform it to something else.” An example of his musical alchemy is “Ya Ves”, a popular tune by Pablo Milanés, from the early 1980’s. “I did the arrangements and translated it through my timeless binoculars”, he says, with a big grin. Michael Jackson’s megahit, “Don’t Stop til’ you Get Enough”, sounds like a deconstruction of the familiar evolving into a joyous new interpretation. “Te Extraño” (“Dancing with my Mother”), is dedicated to Valle’s mother, who passed away in the summer of 2017. “After I heard that she was not anymore in this world, I sat behind my piano and this piece arrived completely in one improvisation. I saw myself dancing with my mother to a nice slow Son Cha, like we always used to do at home or at a party. Two months later, after losing my father, I added the trumpet line, because he played the trumpet, and I wanted to have them together again. It’s like he is playing for us as we dance.” He says that his composition “For my Father is more interpretive, more abstract. As my parents grew older they were even more in love. My father never wanted to be far from his princess.” 

Valle has assembled a stalwart trio comprised of bassist Omar Rodriguez Calvo, a compadre from Matanzas, Cuba, Dutch drummer Jamie Peet, with trumpeter Roy Hargrove as special guest. He “crossed paths with the trumpet genius in Havana in 1997” when he was recording “Crisol”, a Latin Grammy Winner.” But their first meeting was at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2000, after Hargrove heard Valle’s trio outside a rehearsal room, and invited them to join him during his set: “We’re like brothers. We feel what we’re playing. I am very happy that finally our friendship and admiration is recorded in music, on this CD.” 

Joan Gannij (Amsterdam, November 2017)