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Emilio Solla

Latin Grammy winner and multi-Grammy nominee, Argentine-born and New York-based pianist and composer Emilio Solla’s first band, Apertura, (1983-1989) was praised by Astor Piazzolla as one of the most interesting new sounds in the Buenos Aires scene in 1986. Today, with eleven CDs as bandleader and more than forty as arranger/producer, he is regarded by peers and critics as one of the most outstanding and unique composers in the Tango-Jazz field, a musical language which blends Argentine tango and folk with jazz and other contemporary music styles. He has performed all around Europe, Japan, the US and Latin America to rave reviews in many of the most important jazz houses and festivals, such as Bim Huis, Lincoln Center, Marciac, Blue Note, Fasching and more.

Solla moved to New York in 2006, and since then he has composed for, recorded and toured with Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Edmar Castañeda, Cristina Pato and many others jazz and classical music greats, besides performing regularly with his different projects at the Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. Former members of his bands include jazz stars Donny McCaslin, Omer Avital, Jorge Rossy, Jeff Ballard and more.

He continues to tour Europe and the US while working as a free-lance arranger and pianist in different projects in NY. His NY based quintet Bien Sur! released its first CD in 2010 with special guest Billy Hart. This album was included in the Best of 2010 list by Downbeat Magazine. Since November 2010, he is leading a nine piece orchestra, La Inestable de Brooklyn, featuring some of the strongest jazz players in NYC. Their first CD, Second Half (2015) was Nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Latin Jazz Album. In November 2014 Solla’s first symphonic work had its World Premiere at the Palau de la Musica, during the Barcelona Jazz Festival and its US Premier at the Chicago Symphony Hall. 2017 took him back to Buenos Aires for the Premiere of the symphonic version of his Suite Piazzollana. In 2018, he started composing for a new project, the Tango Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece big band, taking his blend of Latin American sounds and jazz to a whole new level of accomplishment. This orchestra released its first album, “Puertos” on August 28, 2019. This album won the Latin Grammy 2020 for Best Jazz Album and one of Solla’s compositions, La Novena, was awarded a Grammy Nomination in 2019 as Best Instrumental Arrangement.


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37
Interview

Emilio Solla: The Chemistry of Music

Read "Emilio Solla: The Chemistry of Music" reviewed by Jane Kozhevnikova


Emilio Solla is an Argentinian, New York-based pianist and composer who mixes classical, jazz, and tango idioms. He has received two Grammy nominations and won a Latin Grammy Award for Puertos: Music From International Waters (Avantango Records, 2019). He has recorded eleven albums as a bandleader and more than forty music projects in different capacities. Solla has performed all around the globe. After moving to New York in 2006, he has composed for, recorded, and toured ...

7
Album Review

Emilio Solla Tango Jazz Orchestra: Puertos: Music From International Waters

Read "Puertos: Music From International Waters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Tango music was born in the late nineteenth century in the ports along the shore of the Rio de la Plata which flows to the ocean along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. A sound of the poorer locales, it was a melting-pot music, drawing from European, Native American, Spanish-Cuban, African and Argentinian folk music influences. The very early twentieth century saw a “tango craze," with this working class music bubbling up out of the slums to gain respectability in ...

4
Album Review

Emilio Solla: Tributango

Read "Tributango" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


There's nothing quite so romantic and life-affirming, in its exuberantly dance-able way, than the tango. It's a sensuous, sinuous sound that bubbled up from the streets of Argentina where bandoneonist/composer Astor Piazzolla found it, and refined it and took it to the concert halls. And in the tradition of all great music, assimilations occur, hand-offs to oncoming artists willing to take the baton on run with it. Grammy-Nominated Argentine Composer/pianist Emilio Solla is one top purveyors of tango in the ...

21
Album Review

Emilio Solla Y La Inestable De Brooklyn: Second Half

Read "Second Half" reviewed by Edward Blanco


What do you get when you blend a bit of Tango, Jazz, Latin and some chamber music? The answer? Pianist Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn nine-piece orchestra delivering their Second Half album of World fusion music that is quite enticing. The album is the culmination of several years performing this particular ensemble in some of the best venues throughout New York City. For some time now, Solla has been an in-demand composer and arranging of music for large ...

10
Album Review

Emilio Solla Y La Inestable De Brooklyn: Second Half

Read "Second Half" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Argentine-born pianist {Emilio Solla has moved around the globe a bit to find perfection in his art: studies in the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, then to New York for more immersion at the Aaron Copland School of Music, and a move to Barcelona, Spain, where he recorded the marvelous Suite Piazzollana (Fresh sound New Talent, 2001) with a mostly Spanish ten piece ensemble. Ten years after his move to Spain, Solla pulled up roots once more, to ...

9
Album Review

Emilio Solla Y La Inestable De Brooklyn: Second Half

Read "Second Half" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The life-as-football-game metaphor is central to this stunning album from pianist Emilio Solla. In 2012, Solla had an epiphany. He awoke to the realities of his existence, the finite nature of things, and the passage of time. He realized that he'd already played the first half of this game called life, working his way up and down the field while executing play after play. Now, in working his way into the second half, he's learned to play ...

197
Album Review

Emilio Solla & The Tango Jazz Conspiracy: Bien Sur!

Read "Bien Sur!" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins


Tango jazz is described as a sound created by Argentine musicians, many of whom have immigrated to other countries. Pianist Emilio Solla, based in New York, is such an artist. Solla earned a degree in classical piano from the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. His works include such style as Argentinean tango, classical, rock and jazz. Bien Sur! is his sixth album as a leader. The Tango Jazz Conspiracy is comprised of saxophonist Chris Cheek, bassist ...

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67

Performance / Tour

Emilio Solla & the Tango Jazz Conspiracy at The Painted Bride Arts Center on February 5

Emilio Solla & the Tango Jazz Conspiracy at The Painted Bride Arts Center on February 5

Source: Michael Ricci

Got tango? The single most essential figure in the history of tango, Argentina's greatest world music export—bandoneon-composer Astor Piazolla—would approve of your decision to take passage alongside Emilio Solla. Considered one of the foremost tango jazz pianists in the business today, Solla delivers earthy folkloric tango styling arranged within a modern jazz structure. Expect minor key tonality, acoustic instrumentation, catchy hooks, and sweeping accordion improvisations.

Pianist-composer Emilio Solla leads his New York-based quintet to debut its freshman recording Bien Sur ...

110

Radio

The Jazz Session #179: Emilio Solla

The Jazz Session #179: Emilio Solla

Source: Michael Ricci

Argentinian pianist Emilio Solla calls his band The Tango Jazz Conspiracy, but that's about the only genre label you'll find him using for his music and he's not even sure what “tango jazz" really means. On his album Bien Sur! (Fresh Sound, 2010), Solla is joined by A-list musicians such as Chris Cheek, Richie Barshay, Victor Prieto and Jorge Roeder. In this interview, Solla talks about his early years in Argentina and his subsequent move to Spain; how Astor Piazzolla ...

144

Recording

Pianist/Composer Emilio Solla Releases New CD with His Ensemble "The Tango Jazz Conspiracy" Titled Bien Sur!

Pianist/Composer Emilio Solla Releases New CD with His Ensemble "The Tango Jazz Conspiracy" Titled Bien Sur!

Source: Two for the Show Media

The New York based Argentinean pianist, composer & arranger Emilio Solla brings in 2010 with an unparalleled recording that demonstrates the pure musical mastery of this artist on the rise. Bien Sur!--his sixth CD as a leader, was completed in the summer of 2009 with his ensemble, The Tango Jazz Conspiracy. The recording date includes special guest drum legend Billy Hart, saxophonist Chris Cheek, Jorge Roeder on bass and the great Richie Barshay on drums. The music Solla introduces on ...

312

Performance / Tour

Emilio Solla & the Tango Jazz Conspiracy Live at the Jazz Standard

Emilio Solla & the Tango Jazz Conspiracy Live at the Jazz Standard

Source: Two for the Show Media

Pianist/Composer & Bandleader Emilio Solla will be performing with his group The Tango Jazz Conspiracy at The Jazz Standard in New York City on Tuesday February 9th, 2010 - Set Times are 7:30 PM & 9:30 PM. This performance is in celebration of Emilio Solla's new CD release titled Bien Sur! on Fresh Sound World Jazz. Emilio Solla & The Tango Jazz Conspiracy Emilio Solla - piano Chris Cheek - saxophones Victor Prieto - ...

135

Performance / Tour

Emilio Solla & the NY Jazz-Tango Group (Fri) Leonardo Cioglia Group (Sat) Jack Hardy in Concert (Sun) This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Emilio Solla & the NY Jazz-Tango Group (Fri) Leonardo Cioglia Group (Sat) Jack Hardy in Concert (Sun) This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Weekend At Cornelia Street Cafe Fri Jul 13 9:00PM & 10:30PM EMILIO SOLLA & THE NY JAZZ-TANGO GROUP (Emilio Solla, piano & composition;Paplo Aslan, bass;Franco Pinna, drums;VIctor Pietro, accordion) “The animated Solla summoned forth ...

128

Performance / Tour

Cliff Korman Qt (Tonight) Emilio Solla & NY Jazz-Tango (Sat) Heather Bennett Qnt (Sun) at the Cornelia Street Cafe

Cliff Korman Qt (Tonight) Emilio Solla & NY Jazz-Tango (Sat) Heather Bennett Qnt (Sun) at the Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz

Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1,9 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F to West 4th St. “a culinary as well as a cultural landmark" Mayoral Proclamation, City of New York 1987 This Weekend at Cornelia Street Cafe Sept. 16 thg Sept. 18 Fri Sep 16 CLIFF KORMAN QUARTET (Billy Drewes, woodwinds; AndyEulau, bass; Vanderlei Pereira, drums/percussion; Cliff ...

"Music of such beauty that it transcends boundaries of style to become an instant classic. Sentido is simply one of the best jazz albums of the year" (All About Jazz NY, 2005) “****” Four Stars. (Downbeat, August 2010 issue) “The combination and balance between Tango and Jazz is perfect. I would have given this record a Grammy Award without thinking it twice” Paquito D’Rivera, about record “Suite Piazzollana”

Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

New York City

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Puertos: Music From...

Avantango Records
2019

buy

Tributango

Avantango Records
2016

buy

Second Half

Self Produced
2014

buy

Bien Sur!

Fresh Sound Records
2010

buy

Conversas (al Lado...

Fresh Sound Records
2008

buy

Sentido

Fresh Sound New Talent
2004

buy

Llegara, llegara, llegara

From: Second Half
By Emilio Solla

Remain Alert

From: Bien Sur!
By Emilio Solla

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