Search - Lecuona, Touzet, Brito :: Afro-Cuban Dances/Ante el Escorial/Malaguena

A Cuban pianist without a clue

DK | Miami, FL USA | 07/28/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As a Cuban myself, it's a recording by Cuban artists such as this who don't represent their music well that makes me blush with shame. Mr. Brito is such an artist. Go listen to Lecuona himself, or the incomparable series of Lecuona on the BIS label by Tirino. The tempi here are slow, languid, having more of a "cocktail" pianist kind of feel. Little color except one mezzo-piano throughout, little bite. The sound quality on the disc is a bit muffled as well. There are many other Cuban artists who run rings around Mr. Brito's Lecuona (Frank Fernandez comes to mind, or Paquito d'Rivera, another Cuban, on saxophone). When can only wonder having studied with Renee Touzet, a great Cuban musician, how this pianist conceived these lack luster, un- Latin performances-and living and teaching in Miami no less!I was very dissapointed with this one: I expected much, much more."