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Alfredo Triff

Alfredo Triff is a violinist and composer. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Havana at age seven, under the direction of Radosvet Bojadieff.

During the 1970's Triff borrowed from contemporary music trends from Europe and the U.S. and made music combining avant-garde traditions and elements from the son montuno.

Shortly after, Triff founded Arte Vivo, a group of four instrumentalist-composers, involved with the contemporary music scene in Havana.

Not happy with the sociopolitical situation in the island, Triff left Cuba for the U.S. in 1980. He ended up in New York, where he relocated.

By the mid 1980’s Triff was playing with well-known musicians of New York underground music scene. In 1985, he started a long collaboration with Kip Harahan, a well-known composer and record producer. He recorded with Eddie Palmieri in his album “Sueño.”

From 1988-1990, Triff became a violinist in Hanrahan’s band, collaborating until this day in albums such as "Vertical Currency," "Tenderness," "Shadow Nights," "Exotica," "A Thousand Nights" and many others.

In 2001 Triff made his first album, 21 Broken Melodies with American Clave. The Paris-based magazine Vibrations nominated the album “best new CD for 2001,” and “one of ten best of 2001” at the Billboard.com. He is featured in Jack Bruce’s last album “Shadows in the Air” and performed with his touring band.

From 2003-2006, Triff composed and produced "Boleros Perdidos," a song-cycle for voice, bass, drums, violin, congas and DJ and finished "Mindtrance," an electronic music album. "Boleros Perdidos" debuted at Hoy Como Ayer in October 2007.

Update for 2008/2009: Triff composed the music for Leon Ichaso's PARAÍSO, which premiered at the International Miami Film Festival. February, 2009:Assaig general@La Capella, Barcelona with Alfredo Triff (vln), Robee Ameen (drums), Rosie Inguanzo (performer). April, 2009: dadaSON @The Colony Theater, Miami Beach, with Alfredo Triff Trio + invited guests. Also, Triff finished "dadaSON" the album, featuring Alfredo Triff Trio: Daniel Ponce on congas, Alex Berti on bass and Triff on violin. Special appearance by singer Roberto Poveda.

August, 2013: Triff’s fourth album "Miami Untitled" a song cycle dedicated to Miami, comes out, featuring Roberto Poveda, Xiomara Laugart & Rosie Inguanzo (vocals), Raúl Murciano (piano), Alex Berti (bass), René Toledo (guitar), José Valentino (flute & tenor sax), Robby Ameen and Negro Horacio Hernández (drums) & Sammy Figueroa (percussion).

July 2014: A performance at Hoy Como Ayer features Xiomara Laugart and Aimeé Nuviola, singing from Triff’s song catalog.

August 2015: Triff puts out his fifth album "Parodies: Jazz Music For Violin and Octet," featuring Alfredo Triff (violin), Raul Murciano (piano), Alex Berti (bass), Rene Toledo (guitar), Jose Valentino (flute & tenor sax), Cisco Dimas (trumpet), Robby Ameen and Negro Horacio Hernández (drums), Daniel Ponce (congas) and Sammy Figueroa (percussion). The CD is available on CDBaby, iTunes and Amazon.com

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Album Review

Alfredo Triff: Parodies: Jazz Music for Violin and Octet

Read "Parodies: Jazz Music for Violin and Octet" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


American-Cuban violinist Alfredo Triff is known for his long-standing work with composer-arranger-songwriter-producer Kip Hanrahan that began in 1985--five years after Triff arrived to New york from Havana, Cuba--and continues to this day. But Triff's work encompasses more than Hanrahan music. He experimented with recording solo electric violin, released solo albums that presented his diverse musical interests in changing formats, collaborated with Brazilian singer-poet Arnaldo Antunes and toured with another of Hanrahan frequent collaborators, Jack Bruce, and participated on Bruce's album ...

152
Album Review

Alfredo Triff: 21 Broken Melodies At Once

Read "21 Broken Melodies At Once" reviewed by Jim Josselyn


As the title and daring cover artwork suggest, “21 Broken Melodies At Once" is different. This is not a collection of songs with melodies and improvised solos, but rather a sort of “symphony" or better, a collage, of ideas, sounds and assorted noises. A short orchestral violin solo gives way to radio sounds, distorted electric violins, a conga/violin duet and on “Sitera" a simply lovely Spanish song sung wonderfully by Xiomara Lougart. “Ambiente pa ti" introduces a more traditional clave ...

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A natural sequel to “21 Broken Melodies” and “Boleros Perdidos,” Alfredo Triff has, with this work, stripped the colors of Cuban music of all outdated stereotypes. Rumba, habanera and charanga become overexposed with an abstract minimalism. Composed of fifteen vignettes, dadaSON is dedicated to “all the anarchists of the soul.” The album offers the look of an exile of his own tradition, to the point that Triff displays the famous urinal, good old Marcel’s throne as album cover.

Listen to haunting violin loops, complex percussive rhythms (by conga player Daniel Ponce), Roberto Poveda’s disenchanted voice accompanied by a piano’s brooding melody. Building from the fragments of memory and Surreal fantasy, the composer/philosopher builds a world of the underworld, with all its nomadic transgressions. It even recalls his producer Kip Hanrahan, with whom Triff has attained some serious highs of dark beauty.- Jacques Denis, Vibrations Magazine.

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

dadaSON

Self Produced
2009

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21 Broken Melodies At...

American Clavé
2001

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