Introducing Composer Leyanis Valdés Reyes

For IN·FLO·RES·CENCE Leyanis Valdés Reyes was commissioned by Reece Ewing to create a composition for solo piano around 1 minute in length responding to the changes to daily life during the global coronavirus outbreak. As part of the platform hosted by The Showroom, this individual piece and 9 others will all be interpreted and performed by the project’s first Artist-in-Residence, Pianist Elio Villafranca, throughout the duration of the project.

Here, enjoy Leyanis's composition 21.12.12 performed by Elio.

In the below Q+A with Kevin Le Gendre (Broadcaster and Writer of Don't Stop the Carnival: Black British Music, 2019), Leyanis discusses the impact of the pandemic in Cuba, her current creative development, unique composition for IN·FLO·RES·CENCE 21.12.12, and what this project means to her.

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Q: How has the coronavirus pandemic affected you as an artist?

Leyanis: This pandemic has affected my work as an artist since we usually performed in clubs, doing live concerts. Live performances are key as one must confront many of the things developed over a long time from a new perspective. In this sense the interaction with the audience is crucial and very stimulating for both sides.

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Q: Has there been more time to compose/work on your artistic development?

Leyanis: On the other hand I have had much more time to focus on what I want to achieve as a musician. I found the time to study in-depth some subject matters for which I never had the time before. This has been an unprecedented experience for all of us, we have experienced how it feels to perform in front of a smartphone the same we would do in a live concert. Which is a great idea/thing. I have also been able to analyse, listen, reflect, and thoroughly study my favourite pianists and delve into the realm of digitised music.

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Q: How do you feel about the IN·FLO·RES·CENCE commission and writing a solo piano piece for Elio?

Leyanis: IN·FLO·RES·CENCE is an interesting project, it has allowed me to meet artists from other parts of the world and learn about their experiences. The piano piece that Ellio Villafranca will perform is not strictly for piano solo, but I chose it for its structure as it allows the interpreter to express his own ideas and propose a personal take/interpretation. Being able to flow wherever the piece takes him.

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Q: 21/12/12 is an intriguing title. Does it have a specific meaning?

Leyanis: This piece is about the Mayan calendar, which forecasted 12/21/12 as a turning point when something would be ending and when an era would start.

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Q: The atmosphere created in the first part is calm and reflective but there is a distinct shift in tempo and rhythm around the 3 minute mark before a return to the main theme. What does the structure represent?

Leyanis: This piece has an unusual structure, it starts with an intro followed by (ABCDEF), all the structures are different but when combined they should keep their own key. The composition departs from a single note, that develops with changes of pace staying always close to its tone/pitch, to conclude how it started. In that sense it could always be a start or an end.

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Q: When I interviewed Elio he talked a lot about the primacy of rhythm in Cuban piano traditions. What is your point of view?

Leyanis: Our heritage of African and Spanish music is present in 12/21/12. It is a fusion between both, something one can see as well in the tradition of Cuban piano.

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Q: Have you, like many Cuban pianists, also studied drumming/percussion?

Leyanis: Unfortunately I did not study percussion, but I work with my brother Jessie Valdés who is a percussionist. Very often we sit at the piano to compose together, and exchange ideas, be it about rhythm, harmony, structure, or style. It is always very interesting how percussionists have another ideas or ways to approach piano.

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Q: You are a solo pianist yourself, so how does it feel to hear another pianist play what you have written?

Leyanis: I look forward to listening to Ellio Villafranca. This piece has many nuances, and it will be great to hear his interpretation.

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Q: Is 21/12/12 also something you would score for an ensemble?

Leyanis: I would adapt the rhythmic base for a larger ensemble adding miscellanea, “bata” drums, box drums, “botijas”, and human voices —gypsy chants—. All that would be adapted to the story I want to convey; 12/21/12 depicts a departure with a single note (as if it were a droplet), that develops with changes of beats shifting from more reflective parts to more lively ones, to conclude in the same way it starts.

LEYANIS VALDÉS REYES

Cuban pianist Leyanis Vald​é​s Reyes has an academic training in classical music. She graduated from classical music in Italy and then in 2006 began to venture into jazz and Cuban music. At this stage was was collaborating with several projects, Gala Major Band, among others. She has worked as a solo pianist in the Cayman Islands, Italy, France, Qatar, and exchanges music with artists from those countries.**

Upon returning to Cuba she decided to create her own music, continuing collaborations leading to an album with Adriano Clemente, ‘Blue Habana’; the ‘Arturo Ofarril’ album including three generations; and her album ‘Valdés Bothers’ including her brother Jessie Valdés on drums. Valdés won the Cuerda Viva 2016 award in Cuba for best jazz song for ‘Gente de Hielo’, and a nomination for the cubadisco 2016 for the album ‘Valdés Brothers’. She is the daughter of Chucho Valdés, Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger.

As featured in: A New Vanguard of Women in Cuban Jazz by Lauren Du Graf (The New Yorker, 24 January 2019)

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"Plenty of Cuban women have made their marks on jazz music, from the Buena Vista Social Club’s Omara Portuondo and the salsa legend Celia Cruz to the Queen of the Bolero, Olga Guillot, who coached Nat King Cole on his Spanish. But, in past generations, Cuba’s jazzistas were predominantly singers; female instrumentalists were too often confined to all-female dance bands, like Anacaona and Canela, and squeezed into matching skintight ensembles.

Last summer, the photographer Rose Marie Cromwell and I travelled to Havana to capture a new generation of female musicians, one that has a different sort of footing in the jazz world. Many of these women have serious chops as instrumentalists. Some have shaved heads or mohawks, or play traditional drums that women were once forbidden to play. All are graduates of Havana’s hypercompetitive Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, the alma mater of the Afro-Cuban jazz legend Chucho Valdés, whose daughter, the pianist Leyanis Valdés Reyes, is pictured in the series...

Leyanis Valdés Reyes, who is thirty-seven, grew up with [thirty-one-year-old drummer] Yissy García; their fathers were in Irakere together. Her father is Chucho Valdés. He advised his daughter to “really discover who you are inside” as a musician. But doing so as a Cuban jazz pianist whose father is Chucho, a name synonymous with Cuban jazz piano, wasn’t easy.

Valdés Reyes sought to establish her own musical identity by immersing herself in classical music and performing abroad. But, in the end, she came back to the family business. When I met her, in Centro Habana, she was with her brother Jessie, who is a drummer. He’s in her band, she’s in his. When she plays, they said, both hear their father’s voice."