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Elio Villafranca
"Album of the Week: The Source In Between"
-The Latin Jazz Corner
"Growing up next door to a local cultural center... surely help to develop his loaded, technically superior, sharp and romantic pianism."
-Jazz Times
"Villafranca is at the level of his countrymen, Chucho Valdes and Gonzalo Rubalcaba... one of our musical treasures, it is a pleasure to witness the evolution of a soon to be truly great artist. He emotes an expressive, emotional quality enhanced by his technically brilliant approach to the keyboard and his rhythmically complex original compositions..."
-Philadelphia Tribune
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Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca’s musical excellence was first widely recognized in 2003 by Jazz Times Magazine who selected his debut album Incantations/Encantaciones (Universal Latin/Pimienta) as one of the top 50 best jazz albums of the year. Mr. Wynton Marsalis also featured Mr. Villafranca, in a performance at the Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Mr. Villafranca will soon appeared as a guest artist of pianist Geri Allen, at the Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” Radio Broadcast for NPR. More recently, Villafranca latest album entitled The Source In Between was selected by The Latin Jazz Corner as Album of the Week.
The Elio Villafranca Quartet has featured an array of accomplished musicians including Pat Martino, Jane Bunnett, Terell Stafford, and Eric Alexander, with whom he recorded his latest album. The Elio Villafranca Quartet has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club, Jazz Standard, and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City and has toured nationally and internationally, performing at Jazz á Beaune Festival in France. The Elio Villafranca Quartet is getting ready for their 2008 France and Ireland National tour.
Mr. Villafranca has also gained the recognition of Latin and jazz music elite as a sideman: He has performed with Jon Faddis, Sonny Fortune, Dave Valentin, Lenny White, Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, Ralph Peterson, Giovanni Hidalgo, Eddie Henderson, Miguel Zenón, Cándido Camero, and Johnny Pacheco among others. Mr. Villafranca toured Europe with Grammy Nominated Blue Note recording artists Jane Bunnett (as part of The Spirits of Havana) and Pat Martino (as part of the Pat Martino Quintet) with each of whom he performed at various world-renowned venues including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium, the Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan, Italy, the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, and the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Holland.
Elio Villafranca was born in the Pinar del Río province of Western Cuba and was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Since his arrival in the U.S., Villafranca has been involved in East and West coast jazz and Latin jazz scenes. Inspired by jazz and other musical genres from the African Diaspora, Villafranca creates unique cultural and musical fusions with spirited, groundbreaking innovations. Mr. Villafranca has composed and arranged original soundtracks for PBS documentaries and a variety of independent films, and is resident professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Villafranca currently resides in New York City and is represented by CeibaTree Music.
The Exaras / Villafranca Project is a new piano-guitar duet that brings together Elio Villafranca and world-renowned Greek Classical Jazz guitarist Spiros Exaras. A sound combining the passion of Cuba's African Diaspora with the mysteries of Greek musical heritage. The Exaras/ Villafranca Project will release an album and appear at Dizzy's Club of Jazz at Lincoln Center later this year.
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