Cuban jazz pianist Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera
Havana, May 28 (RHC)-- The album ‘Con sentimiento cubano: Patria o Muerte,’ premiered this Thursday on social networks. It is the latest musical production by pianist Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera –a Cuban musician residing in the United States.
Recorded at EGREM Studios, the album was released under Producciones Colibrí label. It includes nine versions of Cuban and world classical tunes composed by such renowned musicians as Juan Sebastián Bach, Federico Chopin, Serguei Rachmaninov, Alejandro García Caturla, Ernesto Lecuona, Frank Fernández, Emiliano Salvador and “Nachito” Herrera himself.
It features collaborations by Habana Jazz Social Club Project, National Symphony Orchestra under the conduction of maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa, Cuba’s National Choir.
The title of the album ‘Con sentimiento cubano: Patria o Muerte,’ is a direct reference to the words of Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro at the burial ceremony of the victims of the terrorist sabotage on the French ship La Coubre, on March 5th, 1960.
The album was presented at a virtual press conference from Havana, with “Nachito” Herrera participating from Minnesota, where he is recovering after a ten-day coma caused by Covid-19.
A graduate from the Cuban Higher Institute of the Arts, he served as a pianist, arranger and musical director for various Cuban ensembles like Bakuleye, the orchestra of the world-famous Cabaret Tropicana and was also a member of Cubanismo project.
“Nachito” Herrera has lived in the US State of Minnesota since 2002, but he has kept close links with his native Cuba, always promoting, with his art, a cultural bridge between the United States and its neighboring Caribbean State.
