RECORDING INFORMATION
An explosion of Classical, jazz and Latin colours from one of the jazz world’s most respected musicians.

Michel Camilo is equally at home in solo recitals, leading a big band, or here performing his own music surrounded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

The 46-year-old native of the Dominican Republic has been living music his entire life. "My family has several generations of musicians and composers, in the popular and the classical vein. There was no difference in my house.

"The idea for this symphonic music started with the Labèque sisters. They heard me in 1990, when we both appeared as part of a showcase. They realised that I was classically trained, and fell in love with Caribe, which I play in a solo version on this album. They were screaming from the wings, and after the concert they invited my wife and me to dinner. They commissioned a two-piano arrangement of Caribe that night, and it became their encore on their duo tour. That commission was the first challenge. It made me think twice about what I was doing, and how to transcribe what I was doing. Then we toured playing three pianos, classical and jazz, which led me to learn Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Piano Concerto in F, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Performing those pieces prior to writing my own concerto had a lot to do with building my confidence.

"You have to prove yourself. There’s always that challenge in music, and it’s greater when the new soloist is also the composer. They don’t know until they hear you play, and I cherish that moment of revelation. Then the beautiful thing at the second rehearsal, was when the members of the orchestra brought my jazz CDs in for autographs.

"Leonard is crucial. He understands the rhythmic aspect of the music because he’s a big jazz fan, and because he also comes from many different worlds. He grew up on movie soundstages in Hollywood.

"I have fun breaking the barriers," Camilo concludes. "Music is like a religion, a gift from the Creator, and I have a responsibility to take it as far as I can. Who’s to say you can do only this, or only that? I want to expand my horizons, and once I accomplish something to find new goals. This is why John Coltrane, at the zenith of his art, said he wanted to keep growing, and why one of Charlie Parker’s idols was Varèse. You have to keep growing, not to negate all that you’ve learned, but to bring it all together."