Abe Rabade Doravante

Jelly Roll Morton was once quoted as saying that truly authentic jazz had a certain "Spanish tinge" to it. Playing On Light: 7 Sounding Photos, and indeed many of the growing number of new and interesting releases coming from Spain, make that a difficult statement to disprove.

Playing On Light is the fourth release by Abe Rabade, a talented pianist from Galicia, Spain, and his third release heading up a trio. Each of the seven compositions is based on a series of photographs (reproduced in the accompanying booklet) by artists such as Arno Rafael Minkkinen and Paul Caponigro, making this a concept album of sorts.

Abe Rábade Trío was founded in 1996 in Boston. This first trio featured Galician bassist Paco Charlín and Bulgarian drummer Val Tzenkov. This first period was quite rich in recording sessions and recitals in the context of Berklee College of Music. An important part of the compositions recorded in the following years were written and ensembled during this time.

Noveno trabajo del pianista gallego con su habitual trío desde el año 2008. El repertorio del disco consta de temas standards del jazz, algunas piezas del barroco y una pincelada de folk tradicional gallego.

This record is a beautiful way to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a jazz club that will carry on providing awesome chapters of live jazz history in the near future… Present has deemed to gather Jorge Pardo, Chonchi Heredia, Josemi Carmona, Javier Colina, Jeff Ballard and Abe Rábade together to play and perform two memorable shows last February 1st to 2nd 2012.