Acclaimed pianist Elio Villafranca performed a “Chick Corea Afro Caribbean Experience” with an all-star band on Jan. 28 at the Missouri Theatre. The performance was hosted by the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series. Villafranca performed alongside veteran trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, Grammy-winning bassist Edward Perez, Grammy-winning percussionist Mauricio Herrera, Grammy-nominated drummer Eric Harland and legendary saxophonist Joel Frahm.
The performance fused the music of Chick Corea with rhythmic patterns from the Caribbean, specifically from Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico. Some of the songs played include: “500 Miles High,” “Litha,” “Humpty Dumpty” and “Spain.” Part of the difficulty Villafranca faced with playing music as famous as Corea’s was finding a way of keeping it fresh.
“Well, if I do it in a way I experienced it in the Caribbean, surrounded with all these drums and things like that, maybe there will be something different,” Villafranca said. “And then that’s how I started to think about his music.”
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Villafranca hails from Cuba but has lived in the U.S. since 1995. He is a highly regarded pianist and composer and received a Grammy nomination in 2010 for Best Latin Jazz Album. He has performed and recorded alongside such greats as Lewis Nash, Miguel Zenón, Wynton Marsalis and Corea, among others.
The inclusion of rhythm at the forefront of his music was truly exceptional. Within songs, rhythmic styles would change, and there were extended percussion solos where Villafranca sometimes played the Cuban guataca instrument. This worked perfectly for the band as the percussion section was well taken care of by Harland and Herrera. Harland is a long-time drummer who has toured with greats like Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner.
Frahm and Hendrix performed energetic solos throughout the show. Frahm often quotes other musicians and sometimes goofy songs in his solos — this show was no exception. Frahm quoted Cannonball Adderley during “Spain” and quoted “The Chicken Dance” during “Humpty Dumpty.” Tying this all together was bassist Perez who performed two intricate solos.
The show was in tribute to Corea, whom Villafranca was friends with before he died in 2021. Villafranca recalled his meeting with Corea after performing at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
“That was the beginning of a really beautiful friendship,” Villafranca said. “We stayed in touch. Sometimes I [happened] to be on tour in the West Coast when he was on tour in the West Coast.”
Corea invited Villafranca to attend soundchecks while on tour. Soon, Villafranca was invited to workshops at Corea’s house. Whenever in New York City, Corea would arrange for Villafranca to go to all his shows.
“That was how our relationship started and developed and evolved,” Villafranca said. “I would share with him any new music that I was writing, and he shared with me music he was writing. It was great.”
Villafranca is a faculty member at many schools, including Temple University, The Juilliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and Princeton University. As such, he is a resource for younger musicians.
“The one thing that I often talk [to students] about is just to remember that all the music that we play has roots somewhere, and most of those roots are somewhere in Africa,” Villafranca said. “Everything that happened in America — North, South, Caribbean — Africa has a print on it.”
Villafranca said music taught in America can leave students with some gaps in their education.
“It’s been, for the most part, very westernized,” Villafranca said. “With the European concept of teaching music, they teach you a lot about harmony, melody, but they don’t teach anything about rhythm.”
Villafranca has a new album coming out this year titled “Standing By The Crossroads,” which is the second part in a trilogy of albums. The first of these albums was Villafranca’s 2018 album “Cinque.” The album chronicles a West African man named Cinque as he is sold into slavery.
Villafranca is also working on a jazz suite entitled “Tres Aguas” which is inspired by dancing. “Tres Aguas” will feature instrumentation including Afro Peruvian cajón, and Afro Cuban Yoruba. Each of the three suites will be based on a different style of music and a different person or topic. The first of the three suites is titled “The Fight,” based on Jack Johnson’s famous 1915 boxing match in Havana, Cuba.
The suite will be released on April 14 in performance with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Edited by Egan Ward | eward@themaneater.com
Edited by Kyla Pehr and Mary Philip
