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Elio Villafranca's Cinque Nominated For 2019 Grammy Award As Best Latin Jazz Album!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
December 8, 2018
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Elio's music is passionate. A brand new application of ancient ways. ��Chick Corea

2019 GRAMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS

ELIO VILLAFRANCA- CINQUE
BEST LATIN JAZZ ALBUM

Field 10: Jazz

Category 35. Best Latin Jazz Album

(For vocal or instrumental albums containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.)

Heart Of Brazil

Eddie Daniels

clarinet
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Eddie Daniels

Back To The Sunset

Dafnis Prieto

drums
b.1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Dafnis Prieto Big Band

West Side Story Reimagined

Bobby Sanabria

congas

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band

Cinque

Elio Villafranca

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Elio Villafranca

Yo Soy La Tradici��n

Miguel Zenon

saxophone, alto
b.1976

" data-original-title="" title="">Miguel Zenon Featuring Spektral Quartet

About Cinque

Cinque is a five movement suite inspired by the story of Joseph Cinque, who in 1839 led a successful revolt aboard the slave ship La Amistad, days after being sold and transported to a sugar plantation in Cuba. Elio Villafranca's most ambitious project today, showcases the cultural diversity of the five Caribbean islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, and Jamaica; while simultaneously highlighting the Congolese musical heritage woven into the fabric of each of these diverse nations, and yet unified via the forced migration of Africans to the Americas.

Cinque (artistShare) is a body of work that encompasses narration, original composition and selections of Elio's own field recordings of different forms of rooted Congolese rhythms in the Caribbean, especially the traditions of Tambor Yuka, only practiced today in the region of Pinar Del Ri?o, where Elio was born, and Ganga?, a rare culture that came from Sierra Leon, Cinque' place of birth, to the region of Matanzas, Cuba. Both traditions are near to extinction today.

Elio's intention is to share music the same way he experienced it growing up in Cuba, by giving access to the context and sources that inspired his original compositions. This way of sharing, creates a better bridge with the listener to a more meaningful understanding and connection with music and culture.

Hot House magazine: December 2018 issue

Praise for Elio Villafranca

“Elio's music is passionate. A brand new application of ancient ways." ��Chick Corea

“Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca is an inspired and visionary musician. I am profoundly moved by Elio's vision and musicianship. He is a treasured member of the family here at Jazz at Lincoln Center." ��Wynton Marsalis

“Elio Villafranca writes and plays with passion and a deep understanding of musical nuance, with chops equal to some of the greatest pianists Cuba has ever produced."��DownBeat Magazine

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For more information contact Scott Thompson Public Relations.