Album Notes

Bassist, lecturer, composer, arranger and author, Carlos D'l Puerto was born in Cuba in 1951. He comes from a long line of outstanding bass players and after following an extensive classical training at Havana's Amadeo Roldán Conservatory

Carlos D'l Puerto co-founded the legendary group Irakere along with pianist Chucho Valdés, alto saxophonist Paquito d’Rivera, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and singer Oscar Valdés. After 28 years with the Grammy award-winning Irakere, D'l Puerto decided to put the technique of electric bass playing and Cuban music into textbooks and conservatory courses.

At the beginning of the new millennium he found a new residence for himself in the town of Turku, the former center and capital of Finland. From Turku, this bass player has lecturered at the most prestigious music colleges, conservatories, bass clinics and music festivals all over the world, as well as focusing on the local and national institutions of musical learning, orchestras and concert halls in Finland.

In the spring of 2005, after two-years of planning, Carlos D'l Puerto accomplished his long time dream by bringing together his old playmates and members of the new generation of Afro-Cuban musicians to form a new group around him. The first performances of the Impacto Cubano Orchestra were realised in Turku, and at the April Jazz Festivals in Espoo and in Tampere.

The line up of Impacto Cubano includes saxophone player & singer César Lopez who has performed in Irakere and now leads his own band; Miguel Valdés, trumpet player with Omara Portuondo, the famous Cuban female vocalist. The flute player of the new group is Grethel D'l Puerto, daughter of Carlos D'l Puerto. The singer - or sonero - of the octet is Joaquin Moré, tenor singer with the Cuban Opera.

The music of Carlos D'l Puerto & Impacto Cubano will measure the breadth and pulse of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz, traditional son and modern Afro-rhythms. Side by side with the compositions of D'l Puerto, César Lopez, and the amazing pianist Alexis Bosch and the duelling percussions of Eliel Lazo and Amhed Ponce, one can now find the hot sauce of rhythms of the Mexican cha-cha-cha of Alberto Dominguez with the Puerto Rican mambo of Rafael Hernandez.

THE REAL FESTIVAL OF CUBAN MUSIC

“ An intense way of playing, fashionable interpretation and the exceptional feeling of the concert was also transferred to the audience. Carlos D`l Puerto and his Cuban friends lead you deep into the culture of Caribbean music. There is an influence of traditional Cuban music, classical European music and modern jazz.”

http://www.impactocubano.com/