Créole Renaissance is pianist Aruán Ortiz’ seventh release from Intakt as leader or co-leader, and his Créole Renaissance is pianist Aruán Ortiz’ seventh release from Intakt as leader or co-leader, and his second solo album for the label, coming some eight years after the brilliant Cub(an)ism. that earlier invocation of both Caribbean culture and the compound perspectives of modernism is similarly at work in this collection of pieces. It specifically celebrates the 1930s “Négritude movement” in paris, its literary periodicals and martinique-born poets (Aimé and Suzanne Césaire and rené ménil) supplying the titles for such Ortiz compositions as “L’Étudiant noir” and “Légitime Défense” (as discussed in brent Hayes edwards’ illuminating liner notes). If Cuban jazz piano frequently emphasizes the island’s historical and cultural links to the decorative flourishes of european romanticism, Ortiz is very
different: his playing can be spare or dense, but either way, it is intense, percussive and mercurially alert to rhythmic possibility. Its roots reach to ellington, directly referenced in the title of “Seven Aprils in paris and A Sophisticated Lady”, but there are also affinities with pianists Don pullen and Andrew Hill. the nine tracks range from taut miniatures to more expansive visions. the two-minute “première miniature” consists of rapid ascending phrases growing ever more exuberant and complex. “Deuxieme miniature (Dancing)”, only slightly longer, moves more characteristically up and down, while the still brief “Légitime Défense” is a joyous explosion, close-voiced clusters running riot across the keyboard. moving to more sustained pieces, there are strangely surreal dreamscapes. “We belong to those Who Say No to Darkness” is taut drama, isolated bass tones matched to a shimmering banjo-like prepared middle register and occasional chords. “the Great Camouflage” is a somber elegy haunted by beauty, slow brooding chords and isolated tones gradually ascending the keyboard, with sometimes palpable silences or ringing harmonics that gradually
fade. the longest track, “From the Distance of my Freedom”, is a remarkable event in the history of jazz and spoken word: Ortiz speaking as well as playing the piano—part dialogue, part obligato, part solo. The text includes a few sentences, but it’s shaped by singular words and cellular phrases, many of which end in “-ism” (“primitivism versus modernism,” “surrealism,” “post-colonialism,” “neologism.”
Also repeated: “black renaissance.”) Somehow simultaneously serious and playful, the spoken component ends at the five-minute mark, giving way to the free dance of Ortiz’ piano playing. This is music of intense creativity and emotion, a commemorative dance between lament and liberation.

In seinen Projekten verschmilzt der aus Santiago de Cuba stammende Pianist und Komponist Aruán Ortiz Einflüsse aus der zeitgenössischen klassischen Musik, dem Avantgarde Jazz mit Folklore seiner Heimat und der Magie afro-karibischer Rhythmen. Neben seinen eigenen Gruppen wirkt er im Quartett des Saxofonisten James Brandon Lewis mit. Vor rund acht Jahren erhielt „Cub(an)ism“ die höchste Bewertung beim Down Beat Magazin. Auf seinem zweiten Solo-Album "Créole Renaissance" reflektiert Aruán Ortiz die Geschichte der Négritude - einer Mitte der Dreißigerjahre gegründeten antikolonialen, politischen und kulturellen Bewegung - in seiner Musik. Das Eindringen in dunkle Klangwelten und die Entdeckung geheimnisvoller Motive lotet Ortiz in "L'Etudiant Noir" mit tiefen Tönen aus. In "Légitime Défense" erzielt der Pianist mit granithaften Tonfiguren und melodischen Clustern eine enorme Klangfülle. Mit strukturierten Improvisationen definiert er in "Lo Que Yo Quiero Es Chan Chan", einem bekannten Song des kubanischen Sänger Compay Segundo vom Buena Vista Social Club, die Kunst der Abstraktion. Superb!

Aruán Ortiz’s energy, his skill at creating surprises and variations, and his impressive keyboard mastery make his solo album fascinating.

Now living in Brooklyn, the Cuban-born pianist Aruán Ortiz has a philosophic bent and an impressive list of accomplishments. He is featured on some of the most celebrated, adventurous recordings of the last two decades, including Nicole Mitchell’s Maroon Cloud, Don Byron’s Random Dances and (A)Tonalities, Esperanza Spalding’s Junjo, and Steve Turre’s Woody’s Delight. He has composed for string ensemble and recorded repeatedly as a soloist, with trios, and with mid-sized groups.

His new solo disc, Créole Renaissance, refers to the French Négritude movement of the ’30s: three of his titles, beginning with “L’Etudiant noir” are named after short-lived, but historically important, journals of the movement. On “From the Distance of my Freedom,” the fourth number of Créole Renaissance, Ortiz speaks as well as plays. He doesn’t deliver an argument. Instead, without comment or context, he presents material for listeners to contemplate. “My history speaks through my existentialism,” he asserts, as well as “from my ancestral mysticism.” He repeatedly utters the phrase, “Black Renaissance.” Presumably, Ortiz is that renaissance. He plays from his Afro-Cuban experience, and with “no masks allowed.” “Primitivism versus modernism” is one of the dualities he mentions, but he then adds, “Surrealism.” These labels are simply placed in front of us — could they be overlapping alternatives? Meanwhile, between this series of nouns, the pianist supplies seemingly casual phrases on the piano that are often dissonant and unresolved.

Interestingly, although there are allusions to Afro-Cuban music, Ortiz is very free with rhythms: he never precisely swings nor does he show an interest in extended, continuous pulses. Following the verbal part of “From the Distance of my Freedom,” he solos restlessly, dashing all over the keyboard. He is fearless about when to pause or change tempo. His improvisations here and elsewhere include darting lines in the right hand, and heavy-handed sustained chords. Ortiz ends “From the Distance” with dissonant chords that clash like cymbals: they introduce a final sustained bass note.

The recorded sound of this Intakt disc emphasizes that stereo effect. We can clearly hear the way Ortiz’s left hand works. On “Première Miniature (Créole Renaissance)” his moods shift. Ortiz sounds cheerful as he scurries squirrel-like about the keyboard. On the other hand, “The Great Camouflage” is bleak. It moves like a dirge, a low note in the bass repeatedly answered by chords in the mid-range, with longish pauses as if we were meant to anticipate, not hear, the answering chords. I am not sure what the origin of “The Haberdasher” is, but it’s another playful piece, with staccato notes irregularly accented and widely spaced in pitch. Again, we don’t hear a continuous pulse, yet the music remains engrossing. “Seven Aprils in Paris (and a Sophisticated Lady)” begins soberly, with single notes intoned out of tempo. The occasional chord is sustained through the pedal. It’s a dark-sounding piece, not what this listener expected from “April in Paris” (though it tends to rain in that city all that month).

“Légitime Défense” feels like a series of lightning strikes. The track opens with clusters of notes up high. Then we hear sprays of staccato single notes and nervous answering chords played at a quick tempo. About two minutes in there is a pause, as if the piece had to regroup. This is free music, mostly free of obvious melodies, tempo, and consistent harmonies. That sounds like a lot of negatives, but Ortiz’s energy, his skill at creating surprises and variations, and his impressive keyboard mastery make his solo album fascinating. He makes it move in what I hear as comprehensible ways. It’s playful, not at all pompous. This pianist’s sound is unique, and well worth a listen.

https://artsfuse.org/316000/jazz-album-review-aruan-ortizs-creole-renaissance-a-unique-sound/

Der Titel dieses Albums lässt ein Feuerwerk karibischer
Rhythmen erwarten, vielleicht à la Gonzalo
Rubalcaba. Fast schon düster hingegen wirken
die ersten Töne zu ”L’étudiant noir”. Die sich
dahinter verbergende Spannung erinnert an ”Légitime
Défense” – so der Name einer Zeitschrift
aus den Dreissigerjahren, welche die Négritude
zum Thema hatte –, ein Begriff, der hier als Titel
des dritten Tracks auf der CD vorkommt. Im weiteren
Verlauf der Setlist werden die düsteren
Klänge dann allerdings zunehmend aufgelöst,
z. B. im bedeutenden ”We Belong to Those Who
Say No to Darkness”. Ortiz ist ein begnadeter
Techniker, der mit den Avantgarden des Jazz und
der zeitgenössischen bzw. Neuen Musik ebenso
vertraut ist wie mit den karibischen Traditionen
aus der eigenen Biographie. Die Titel seiner
”Creole Renaissance” sind eine Art ideologischer
Überbau, mit dem er sich ebenso auseinandersetzt
wie mit der Jazztradition, etwa in Form einer
Anspielung auf ”Sophisticated Lady” oder
kubanischen Traditionen, mit Anleihen bei Chan
Chan, das der Buena Vista Social Club in die
ganze Welt getragen hat. Eben, die ganze Welt ist
hier einbezogen in dieser eklektischen und gleichzeitig
kompakten, bewusst inszenierten Musik
von Aruán Ortiz. Wie der Titel des Songs ”From
the Distance of My Freedom” verrät, geht es um
eine Reflexion auf zwei Ebenen, der musikalischen
und der existenziellen.

"Two absorbing solo piano albums that in different ways reject the artistic imperative of a signature style. That is, they can't immediately be recognised from their opening notes. The work of Norwegian pianist Christian Wallumrød falls imprecisely between contemporary composition, jazz and improv. His Ensemble has recorded on ECM, and he's released the solo albums Pianokammer (2014) and Speaksome (2021). To describe Wallumrød as an unflashy player is an understatement.

The pieces on Percolation are rather less minimal, and less electronic, than on Speaksome. But the album opens with the halting, spare ""Marrowing"" and the nervous, fugitive ""Noble Fir"". Both pieces reflect Wallumrød's intense, narrow-focus interiority. Nordic church music's lilting plangency pervades ""Ny Gitar"", ""Deer Naylla"" and ""The Sing"". There are occasional electronic sounds, most notably on ""You Didn't"", which features echoey autoharp against an almost infrasonic doom-laden beat. On ""Higher Than Your Gluteus"" a looping, spongy acid house beat is gradually submerged by dark, minimal boogie-woogie.

Aruán Ortiz's album is less ingratiating, more uncompromising - though it generally projects a more conventional piano style. Créole Renaissance celebrates the racial self-consciousness of négritude, a concept developed by the Paris based journal L'Étudiant Noir (1935). The exploratory opening track, with the same title, seems to be constantly trying to evolve a groove, but failing. Generally, in fact, rather than grooves as such, the album features their residues. Figures gesture at montuno riffs before dissolving.

Ortiz always begins de novo, rejecting a signature style. But he's a personal artist nonetheless, his stylistic continuity developing a groundbreaking synthesis of Western modernism and Afro-Cuban roots music. ""Seven Aprils In Paris (And A Sophisticated Lady)"" is funereal and macabre while the lugubrious ""The Great Camouflage"" moves at a glacial pace - there's nothing uptempo here. Ortiz exploits occasional extended techniques, notably on ""We Belong To Those Who Say No To Darkness"" where strings are dampened to nasal thuds and metallic strums. The result is a sombre meditation by a modern master.

This solo piano record by pianist/composer Ortiz will sound like some to be minimalist jazz. To others it will sound like contemporary classical music. What it sounds like to me is purely original and yes, minimalist.

The liner notes reveal that Ortiz is using Négritude as the inspiration for these solo pieces. (Eight are originals. The two covers are of songs by Duke Ellington and Company Segundo.)

The simplest explanation of Négritude is being of Black African origin.

Créole Renaissance is a hauntingly beautiful album that, apart from its inspiration, puts the listener into a place of quiet introspection. There is nothing rushed. Nothing urgent. The music is often starkly allowed to ring out until you’re left with nothing but the sound of your own breath listening to this very fine music.

https://culturalattache.co/2025/08/29/new-in-music-this-week-august-29th/

Der Titel des neuen Albums von Aruan Ortiz, ein Solo-Recital, ist überaus passend gewählt. Denn schon in diesem „Creole Renaissance“ stecken (leicht verschlüsselt) genau jene Ingredienzien und Botschaften, die den Instrumentalisten sein Leben lang begleiteten und formten, und ihn bewusst als auch unbewusst, zu dem engagierten Künstler haben wachsen lassen, der er heute ist.
Anfangs ging es bei ihm überwiegend um den Blick nach vorn. Geboren in Santiago de Cuba, wo er sich an der Bratsche hat ausbilden lassen, wechselte er 1992 zum Klavier und ging 1995, nach dem Gewinn eines Kompositionspreises, nach Spanien. Später lebte er in Paris. Er wollte Jazz spielen und natürlich zog es ihn an jene Orte, die unablässig im Rhythmus dieser Musik pulsieren. Zwangsläufig landete er in New York. Und hier, konfrontiert mit unglaublichen quantitativen wie qualitativen Spielformen dieser Musik, begann er sich stärker mit seiner und der Vergangenheit des Jazz auseinanderzusetzen. Dabei stand er aber immer mit mindestens einem Fuß in der Gegenwart und war auch nie abgeneigt, sich Gedanken über die Zukunft des Jazz zu machen.
So standen ihm neben den kreolischen Wurzeln des New Orleans-Jazz, später auch die europäischen Einflüsse von Schönberg, Messiaen und Ligeti zur Seite. Gleichzeitig waren für Ortiz natürlich auch Don Pullen und Cecily Taylor wichtige Inspirationsquellen.
Auf „Creole Renaissance“ kommen zusätzlich noch die Négritude, also die kulturellen, politischen und literarischen Bewegungen, die in den 1930er Jahren unter französischen Intellektuellen entstanden, zum Ausdruck. So stehen dem Pianisten eine unglaublich Breite an Möglichkeiten und Ideen zur Seite.
Seine Klangabenteuer und Musiküberzeugungen finden dabei weitab aller virtuosen oder technischen Grenzerfahrungen statt. Ortiz ist eher der Anatom, ein sezierender Klavierspieler, der zerlegt, vergleicht, analysiert und (vielleicht) altes wieder neu, bzw. anders zusammensetzt. Das hat einen unglaublichen Reiz, da er hier manchmal völlig unorthodoxe Wege geht. Er zitiert willkürlich, oder lässt sich im Strom ganz individueller Gedanken geheimnisvoll treiben. Hier findet alles seinen Ausdruck: Vergangenheit – Gegenwart – Zukunft.

https://www.kultkomplott.de/Artikel/Musik/#article_anchor_3662

Cuban Cubism is central to Aruán Ortiz's musical identity—but in this album, his vision extends far beyond. While the 1930s Negritude movement was a literary endeavor, Ortiz seeks to embody that movement not through words but through music. His compositions channel their spirit with abstraction, tension, and a deep sense of diasporic reflection.

Ortiz, born in Santiago de Cuba—the island's second-largest city—is shaped by its distinctive sonic culture. His influences stretch widely, encompassing American and European 20th-century composers such as Schoenberg, Ligeti, and Xenakis, as well as icons of funk and soul like James Brown and Sly Stone.

Now based in Brooklyn, Ortiz is a pianist, violist, and composer who defies easy categorization. His music fuses jazz, avant-garde classical, Afro-Cuban traditional and experimental improvisation into a singular voice that is intellectually rigorous and emotionally provocative.

Liner notes are rarely essential, but the essay by scholar Brent Hayes Edwards is a vital guide to understanding this album. Hayes Edwards traces a lineage from a 1935 issue of a Parisian journal—one of the origins of the Negritude movement—and explores its significance for Ortiz. For Ortiz, the "Creole Renaissance" is not confined to the Caribbean; it must be diasporic in scope.

With the album's opening notes, Ortiz spans the entire keyboard—from the highest treble to the deepest bass—symbolizing the vast gaps that must be traversed across oceans and histories. This is not a musical homecoming, but a journey of interconnection.

Ortiz's music bears the imprint of Don Pullen, and Cecil Taylor. He also offers fleeting nods to figures like Duke Ellington and Compay Segundo. However, these are not direct quotations—they are echoes, refracted through Ortiz's unique compositional lens. As Hayes Edwards suggests, listening to Ortiz can feel like witnessing a difficult birth. The piano is not conventionally played; rather, it is interrogated, deconstructed, and reimagined.

In a previous solo album, Cub(an)Ism (Intakt, 2017), Ortiz described his approach as "Cuban Cubism" as: "A process of constructing unfamiliar harmonic movements and layering them with Cuban rhythmic ideas. Much like the Cubist visual art of Picasso and Braque, this technique emphasizes fragmentation, simultaneity, and multiple perspectives."

"Etudiant Noir" embodies the metaphor of gaps—bright treble notes and grounded basslines articulating distance and disjunction. The narrative unfolds with elegance, inviting space for reflection. Rhythms are only hinted at, but the persistent presence of the top notes offers a delicate tension.

A richly-layered piece, "Seven Aprils in Paris (and A Sophisticated Lady)" evokes "April in Paris." It is a track containing oblique allusions to Duke Ellington—especially slivers of "Sophisticated Lady." The "Cubism" in the title is apt: harmonic and melodic shards coalesce into something suggestive yet elusive.

Here, in "Légitime Défense," the influence of Cecil Taylor is undeniable. Ortiz may not readily acknowledge the debt, but his leaping, percussive gestures clearly echo Taylor's explosive freedom. Yet Ortiz also diverges—he allows more space, resisting the urge to overwhelm. His playing is urgent, but never bludgeoning.

A powerful track, "From the Distance of My Freedom" combines spoken word and piano. The litany includes terms like Criticism, Pan-Africanism, Postcolonialism, Black Intellectualism, Caribbean Existentialism, and Black Renaissance. As the words accumulate, so does the musical intensity—notes cluster, tension mounts, and eventually the voice fades, leaving a final, hard chord to punctuate the piece.

Only with "The Great Camouflage" do we fully realize how much Ortiz has stripped his music down. It is meditative, spare, and courageous in its restraint. Each note is deliberate, each decay carefully allowed to resonate. It's a kind of sonic bravery rarely attempted in contemporary piano music.

A bold, defiant statement: "We Belong to These Who Say No to Darkness" finds Ortiz attacking the piano with energy drawn from free jazz, layered with sounds resembling drums, oud, shekere, gamelan, and even zither-like textures. Lyrical interludes balance harsh dissonances, strange intervals, and intense percussive flurries. The pacing is inventive and absorbing, never relying on conventional forms but maintaining coherence through sheer creative force.

Ortiz's vision is rooted in a conception of Cuba not as a fixed identity, but as an ajiaco—a flavorful stew of diverse cultural and historical sources. This idea permeates the album, which moves beyond genre toward a kind of philosophical musical expression. His music challenges boundaries while staying deeply connected to Cuban roots and diasporic consciousness.

This is not an album that comforts or conforms. It is demanding, provocative, fresh, and visionary. Ortiz composes with a philosophical underpinning, using musical fragmen...

Aruán Ortiz ist nicht der gewöhnliche Pianist von nebenan. Geboren in Santiago de Cuba, aufgewachsen in der Schule der klassischen Moderne und längst in Brooklyn zu Hause, trägt er in seinen Händen eine halbe Welt. Europäische Avantgarde von Schoenberg, Messiaen oder Ligeti, afro-kubanische Rhythmen von Bebo Valdés bis Chucho, der freie, eruptive Geist von Don Pullen oder Cecil Taylor – all das fließt bei ihm zusammen. Und doch bleibt Aruán Ortiz er selbst. Für ihn besitzt das Klavier eine eigenständige Sprache, in der Geschichte, Widerstand, Exil und Hoffnung miteinander ins Gespräch treten.

Mit ´Créole Renaissance´ legt Aruán Ortiz ein neues Soloalbum vor, acht Jahre nach ´Cub(an)ism´. Aufgenommen im Dezember 2024 in den “Artesuono Studios” von Stefano Amerio in Italien, gemischt und gemastert im Frühjahr 2025, präsentiert er zehn Stücke, die nichts beschönigen, nichts vereinfachen. Schon der Titel ´Créole Renaissance´ verweist auf eine Renaissance, die ihre Kraft aus der Tiefe der Karibik, der Erfahrung des Kolonialismus und der Poesie der Négritude schöpft. Die Töne stellen Fragen, sie graben in der Geschichte.

Der Opener ´L’Etudiant Noir´ rollt schwer und drängend. ´Seven Aprils In Paris (And A Sophisticated Lady)´ dagegen malt ein lyrisches Bild: Paris im Licht, eine Silhouette, ein Hauch von Ellington. Mit ´Légitime Défense´ schlägt Aruán Ortiz kurz und kantig zu, keine zwei Minuten. ´From The Distance Of My Freedom´ öffnet sich wie ein einsamer Monolog.

Die Miniaturen – ´Première´ und ´Deuxième´ – sind kleine Fragmente, rasch hingeworfen, doch voller Spannung. ´The Great Camouflage´ breitet tiefe Akkorde in stillen Räumen aus, fast wie Morton Feldman. Für ´We Belong To Those Who Say No To Darkness´ greift Aruán Ortiz ins Innere des Klaviers, zupft und dämpft die Saiten, verwandelt das Instrument in Oud, Zither oder elektrische Resonanz.

Gegen Ende hellt sich der Ton. ´The Haberdasher´ tänzelt leichter, fast verspielt. Und mit ´Lo Que Yo Quiero Es Chan Chan´ verweist Aruán Ortiz auf Compay Segundo, den lebendigen Puls seiner Herkunft. Das Stück endet leise, wie ein Nachhall, der zurück nach Kuba trägt.

´Créole Renaissance´ zwingt, genau hinzuhören, sich einzulassen. Aruán Ortiz arbeitet mit Stille, mit Brüchen, mit Klangflächen, die nicht nur Musik sind, sondern Geschichte in Echtzeit. Er steht damit in der Tradition von experimenteller Musik, die immer auch politisch, poetisch und existenziell war. Denn Aruán Ortiz verwandelt Geschichte in Klänge: Kolonialismus, Exil, Widerstand. Doch es bleibt auch Hoffnung für die Zukunft, in jeder Dissonanz, in jeder Pause. ´Créole Renaissance´ ist ein Album, das seine Renaissance nicht nur im Titel trägt, sondern in jedem Ton.

(8,5 Punkte)

https://www.saitenkult.de/2025/08/27/aruan-ortiz-creole-renaissance-piano-solo/

It’s a truism that history is written by the victors. What if it could be written by the musicians? That is the question obliquely raised by the intriguing new release from Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz. Most people’s grasp of history is at best superficial — this author no exception — so it is welcome when an artist explores a period or cultural flowering, inspiring further research and, one hopes, a larger worldview.

Ortiz’s latest solo date continues a fruitful partnership with Switzerland’s Intakt, which since its founding has championed iconoclastic pianists. His playing on Créole Renaissance is graceful, full of purpose; he comes across as a sculptor, not a painter. The album resists passive listening, and the titles are not after-the-fact throwaways. There is a recitation on “From the Distance of My Freedom,” touching on an idea from intellectual history, Négritude, the early 20th-century African movement in philosophy and critical theory that challenged colonial narratives.

The pace of Créole Renaissance often mimics a long trek across a flat, almost featureless plain, notes popping up with the infrequency of desert plants, the shorter miniatures coming faster and denser, but only to a point. All that space gives one plenty of time to think.

https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/sweeps-week-top-august-jazz-releases-henkin-edition/