![]() All of us have dedicated our lives to the act of improvising, of creating. So I think in terms of the similar spirit, I would say it’s the spirit of the art of improvising, of listening. Did you feel that?ĮE: What I feel is the affinity that happened with each one of them, myself with Chick and myself with Chucho, is so clearly heard on this recording. RL: I feel like these two different pianists have a similar spirit. She had all kinds of music in the house, and some of these tunes I learned from her, from what she played. And he said, "How do you know these?" And I told him it's because the way I grew up - my mom is the daughter of a Spanish Basque. He liked what I brought, and he was quite surprised that I knew those tunes because they were written by a Mexican composer, a Spanish composer, you know, like different types of tunes. I brought in a few charts for Chucho, just chord changes and the melody. It was such a fun day that we had together. So Chucho and Marc also played some duets. And he loves the things that Bill Evans played. ![]() And my husband, (bassist) Marc Johnson, was there too. I was in Miami for a gig and the day before my concert, I went to his house and we had lunch and then we played some duets. I'm very, very pleased, and it was very special. I knew a lot more about how to relate musically to him than I would know how to relate to Chucho. I didn't know how it was going to come out, because Chick was a tremendous influence on my music in my young days, so I have always been very familiar with the way Chick plays and his writing, his compositions. The affinity, we played together really in a beautiful way. Let me complete this beautiful work that I've done with Chick, with Chucho." And I really feel that what I've done with Chucho is so heartfelt, it has so much rhythm. So once I did the duets with Chick, I said, "OK, this is it. I think it was that same year we played a jazz cruise together. Then we kept seeing each other throughout the years at the same festivals, especially during the summer festival season, and we'd say hello. He also knew of my work and liked everything I did. When I met him afterwards, I said to him that I'd love to play duets too, someday. He was very sensitive to the way his father played and the music was melodic, had beautiful rhythms. It was beautiful to see the way he played with his father. ![]() I had the night off, and I was invited to go listen to their concert. He was playing duets with his father, Bebo Valdes, playing at the same theater in Barcelona that I was going to play the night after. I met Chucho, I think it was in 2000, the first time. I met Chucho much later than I met Chick. RL: What’s your history with Chucho Valdes?ĮE: He's a beautiful player. I'm very, very grateful that we had this opportunity. I believe this was the last studio recording he made. And it was it was very sad, but I'm thrilled that he left us with this. On the day he passed, I was mixing the recording, so I was immersed in our music. He seemed so healthy, and we had plans to play together, to write things together. It was so hard for me, and for so many, that Chick left us. OK, let's do those." And we didn't even count, you know, when you count off the tune before you start? Nothing, we just started playing, and that was it. Except with some of the tunes, he mentioned a couple, and I mentioned a couple and it was, "OK I know that. RL: And I understand that you didn't really plan anything ahead of time.ĮE: That's right. We heard each other, the affinity that we demonstrated when we played together was very, very special. The communication, the way we approached the music. And what you hear on this recording is really remarkable, the way we played together. The engineers had already done the set up. We walked in and hugged each other and went right to our pianos. He was a Yamaha artist, so we went to the Yamaha Artists Service in New York City, where the pianos were selected. We texted each other, talked a little bit about tunes, made suggestions. I'd known him for so many years, decades really, and we always talked about, "Oh, we have to play some time and do something together." It happened that our schedules coincided at the end of 2018 and we said, "OK, let's do it." I have always liked playing piano duets, and with Chick Corea, we had talked about playing duets for a long time. How did this project come about?ĮE: Well, this particular album has been in my mind for a while. RL: We’re excited that you're coming to the Triple Door in Seattle, and you're touring on your new album, " Mirror Mirror," which is an amazing collection of duets - you with Chick Corea and with Chucho Valdes.
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