Selected Press
Aruán Ortiz “Inside Rhythmic Falls featuring Andrew Cyrille and Mauricio Herrera
“Ortiz descends into a deep feeling on these 10 tracks, each one the personalization of some aspect of his musical life……One hears the firm imprint of Cuba’s musical heritage on Ortiz’s compositional style: the pulse of African-derived beats, the modern vocabulary of classical pianism and the abandon of free improvisation.” – Suzanne Lorge, DownBeat
“With help from the Cuban percussionist Mauricio Herrera and the Haitian-American drum eminence Andrew Cyrille, Ortíz renders his own kind of sonic hypnosis….He moves in and out of restless, repeated patterns, sometimes in sync with the drummers and sometimes holding firm even as their cadence tumbles apart.“ – Giovanni Russonello, New York Times
“Cuban-born pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is constantly evolving, experimenting and injecting new elements into his craft….The unusual sense of shifting movements is liberating and engrossing; the music exceedingly listenable and inventive. Ortiz is an exceptional composer with a special talent for surrounding himself with gifted and empathetic colleagues.” – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz
“Ortiz successfully explores [Cuba’s] cultural narratives and aesthetics…. Inside Rhythmic Falls is an insightful reflection into the ‘global symphony’ of the Oriente and a great tribute to its community.” – Jamaal Baptiste, Black Grooves
“The complex rhythms that the musicians produce become hypnotic in the ways that they ebb and flow and trade off of each other in a sense of constant motion, creating a collective improvisation of depth and spirited interplay. Cuban rhythms have a long history integrating with jazz and Ortiz and his colleagues carve their own path in this direction with vigor and enthusiasm.” – Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues
“Inside Rhythmic Falls realizes Cuban-born pianist Aruán Ortiz’s dream: To create a recording that conveys the atmosphere of everyday Cuban life, through the filter of an avant-garde jazz musician…This is exactly the feel of this record. The classical musician, well-acquainted with Bartók, Stravinsky and Ligeti, gives an exciting mix of these two very different cultures.” – Forum Avx Cafe
“The thing that’s most attractive about Cuban-born Aruán Ortiz is not that his jazz is informed by the culturally-rich music of his homeland; it’s that he uses his background as a springboard for pushing jazz to its limits. His compositions and piano reach toward freedom, ending up in a place that is an abstraction of what inspires them, while also writing a new chapter to the book of Afro-Cuban jazz.“ – S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
“Beautifully done album Inside Rhythmic Falls channels all Ortiz's Cuban life input into a feeling of being literally knocked over by rhythm. The Afro-Cuban roots are ‘abstracted’ into a Modernist musical world throughout…This is plainly excellent music. All involved sound wondrous…This is no mere flirtation with the past. It is much more, and says musical reams about rooted respect amidst a determined moving forward. A fabulous record. One of the best of its kind. Viva!“ – Greg Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review
“The album is a narrative of deep human emotion, which peals tenderly from Ortiz's notes. Through this record, Cuba speaks of the world's lives and lifetimes.“ – Chris Searle, Morningstar Online [UK]
“Aruán Ortiz is one of a number of contemporary Cuban musicians taking the traditions of their rich island culture and exploring its avant-garde potential by deconstructing the Afro-Cuban rhythms that underly so much of modern music and thereby exploring their African roots and culture. You can clearly hear all of these influences in this suite of works.“ – Mike Gavin, UK Vibe
Aruán Ortiz "Inside Rhythmic Falls"/Nubya Garcia "Source". Catalunya Radio, A la Carta. (October 15th, 2020)
Via Jazz Selecció: Don Ellis/"Aruán Ortiz Trio Live in Zürich", Catalunya Radio, A la Carta, (July 25 2018)
Radio Popolare, IT: Intakt: James Brandon Lewis, Molecular; Aruan Ortiz, Inside Rhythmic Fall. Curated by Marcello Lorrai
Singing again. Grete and the Cuban pianist. Nielsen, Vigdis, Documental, Norway. (On production, 2021)
Ambitious logic. Ullman, Michael. Art Fuse Magazine. US. (October 26th, 2018).
Random Dances and (A)tonalities. London Review or Books. US. (October 19th, 2018). Adam Shatz.
Piano Collective Winged Serpents Honors Late Jazz Maverick Cecil Taylor. Shteamer, Hank. Rolling Stone Magazine (Aug 23rd, 2018)
Aruán Ortiz: Por los codos. Sergio Piccirilli. El intruso. Argentina. (July 2018).
Unterwegs, unterwegs. Stefan Hentz. Die Zeit. Germany. (March 15th, 2018).
Conversation fractale autour du piano. Laurent Dussutour, Citizen Jazz. Francia. (March, 2018)
An Interview with Aruán Ortiz. Lynn René Bayley. The Art Music Lounge. US. Online. (August 10, 2017).
Translating life into music. Beth Wood. San Diego Tribune. US. (August 10th, 2016).
Aruán Ortiz. Hidden Voices’s Speech. Jamila Campagna. Il Muro Magazine art and visual culture. Italy. (April 3rd, 2016).
Ortiz's 'Hidden Voices' Mixes Cuban Strains with Modern Jazz. Kevin Whitehead. NPR Radio Program Fresh Air. US. (March 16th, 2016).
Geometrija, arhitektura in odsevi v glasbi. Tina Lesnicar. DELO Magazine. Slovenia. (March 14th, 2016).
Aruán Ortiz: Long-overdue recognition. Karl Ackerman. Chicago Jazz Magazine. US. (March 9th, 2016).
Aruán Ortiz taps art, architecture for jazz expression. Jon Garelick. Boston Globe. US. (February 25th, 2016).