Until recently, I was unfamiliar with award-winning Cuban pianist/composer Harold López-Nussa, and so my main interest in the appearance of his quartet at the Outpost was focused more on the phenomenal Swiss-born harmonica player Grégoire Maret, long a favorite of mine, who is a member of the quartet. Then, I heard López-Nussa’s most recent release, Timba a la Americana, and several previous releases, and now I’m as excited to see and hear him as I am to see and hear Maret. This Sunday, November 19, the equally phenomenal López-Nussa will introduce his innovative renovation of Latin jazz. Prepare to be wowed.

“Funky,” the very first tune on Cuban pianist/composer Harold López-Nussa’s latest release (his first on the Blue Note label), lets you know immediately that you are in new territory. Where else have you heard the funk of Augusta, Georgia, (circa 1965) and the bossa of Rio de Janeiro (circa 1955) in the same tune, processed through a filter of traditional Cuban music? (Video here.) It’s a new sound, and looking back over López-Nussa’s development, it seems inevitable.

A native of Havana, López-Nussa was born into a musical family, began studying piano at eight years of age, and attended the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory and the Instituto Superior de Artes. As comfortable with the piano concerti of Heitor Villa-Lobos as he is with the popular and traditional music of Cuba, López-Nussa has performed on the classical stage, played with the outstanding figures of Cuban traditional music and popular music, and worked with top-flight jazz musicians such as Chucho Valdés, David Sánchez, Horacio “El Negro” Hernández, Christian Scott, and Stefon Harris. In 2005, he won the prestigious Montreux Jazz Piano Competition in 2005, taking the First Prize and the Audience Prize for solo piano. Since then, he has released multiple Latin jazz albums, distinguishing himself as a solo artist and leader who can dig muscularly into the most rhythmically demanding guajeos and montunos and also apply a delicately expressive touch on ballads.

One thing that stands out across these albums is López-Nussa’s willingness to embrace pop material that falls outside of the typical Latin jazz repertoire, infusing such songs as Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and the Legrand/Bergman tune “The Windmills of Your Mind” with a Cuban feel. “So everything that gives me a way out of my comfort zone, I’m looking to go there and try it, and sometimes it works and sometimes didn’t work that well. But I’m trying,” he says. “Obviously I’m very proud of and I’m deep into the Cuban tradition,” he says, “but I’ve got a lot of inspiration from a lot of music, as well. I listen a lot to pop or rock, and I’m always looking for new adventures.”

López-Nussa and his wife and daughters embarked on a major new adventure in December of 2021, moving from Cuba to France, settling in Toulouse. Thanks to his French grandmother, he and his daughters have French passports, and López-Nussa wanted them to experience that part of their heritage. “France is a beautiful country, but most important for me, they have a lot of respect and a lot of work for jazz musicians, you know. They have a lot of festivals, small ones, big ones, and that’s also good for me.”

Also, the pianist wanted to stretch out of the conventional traditions of his homeland and give expression to new ideas that had been percolating for a time. France provided a good stimulus for the project. To find the right expression for these ideas, López-Nussa teamed up with producer Michael League, leader of the band Snarky Puppy, with whom he had developed a friendship after League heard him play in Cuba some years before.

He also called on the harmonica prodigy Grégoire Maret, whom he had first heard at a festival while on tour with Omara Portuando. “He was playing with Herbie Hancock. I was playing with Omara,” says López-Nussa. “They were playing after us, and I was just watching the concert, and the way that he was playing the harmonica just blow my mind.” A few years later, he invited Maret to join him on a date at the Blue Note in New York. “He came and played with us for two nights, and we made a connection just like that. He never before played Latin music that way. But he’s a very talented guy, and he killed it those two nights.”

Later, Maret joined the pianist on a tour in the States, filling in for Cuban musicians who had been unable to get the necessary visas. López-Nussa decided to use the same quartet, which includes his brother Ruy Adrián López-Nussa on drums and Luques Curtis on bass, on the new recording, along with Bárbaro “Machito” Crespo on congas. The quartet will be appearing at the Outpost.

On Timba a la Americana, López-Nussa and League worked closely together to bring traditional Cuban elements into play with a variety of other influences and textures. For example, on “Mal du Pays” (“Homesickness”), at League’s suggestion, López-Nussa employed a Fender Rhodes for the first time. He felt it added an intimacy to the song, which seems to be a conversation between his Cuban self and his expatriate self. On “Afro en Toulouse,” which rides on some very tricky rhythmic ideas, you can hear touches of Monk and Hancock. There’s an arresting passage of baroque funk on “Tierra Mía,” in which the expatriate pianist seems to be waving to Cuba from France, and the gospel-inflected “Hopeful” goes joyfully to church. López-Nussa’s love of pop and of “simple but at the same time beautiful” melodies also makes itself felt on the album in the tender “Mamá.”

Through all of this, two things remain constant. First is López-Nussa’s dazzling technique and his impressively inventive improvisational ability. Second is his “Cubanity,” the happily inescapable musical traditions of Cuba and the humanity that infuse every track.

For listeners, it all adds up to a deeply satisfying musical experience.

Harold López-Nussa: Timba a la Americana
featuring Grégoire Maret
with Ruy Adrián López-Nussa and Luques Curtis
Weil Hall
Outpost Performance Space
210 Yale Blvd. SE, Albuquerque
Sunday, November 19, 7:30
Tickets ($35/$30 members and students) available here

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© 2023 Mel Minter