Fabian Almazan
Trio
‘This Land
Abounds with Life’
Biophilia
Records
Cuban native Fabian
Almazan crossed the Mexican border with his family at the age of nine in 1993.
Over the past two decades, he has become one of the top pianists in jazz. His
new two-CD set, “This Land Abounds with Life,” is a bittersweet musical
exploration of his feelings about his homeland, which he revisited in 2016.
Although the album is dominated by piano, Almazan adds field recordings of
Cuban people and nature to some of the tracks.
Song titles like
“Folklorism,” “The Poets,” and “Songs of the Forgotten” provide a sense of the
scope of Almazan’s evocative musical journey. That scope even extends to his
life in the United States with tunes like “The Everglades,” a soundscape
conjuring the Florida wetlands he lived near while growing up. Aside from two
solo piano tracks, the album showcases his excellent trio, with Linda May Han
Oh on bass and Henry Cole on drums. A lush string quartet adds extra energy to
the first tune.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2019.
