Arun Ortiz, celebrated piano cubist, distinguished jazz improviser, award-winning composer and idiosyncratic stylist, presents Crole Renaissance, his second solo piano album on Intakt Records which comes eight years after Cub (an)ism.”Ortiz is renowned for his prodigious technique, and multiple lineages converge in his hands, from Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Ligeti to Bebo Valds, Don Pullen, and Cecil Taylor”, writes Brent Hayes Edwards and adds “Arun Ortiz’s stunning pianistic reflections on the implications of a Crole Renaissance start here, placing the music within a long history of collective Black study. Ortiz explains that he was inspired above all by the ways Ngritude poets such as Aim and Suzanne Csaire and Ren Mnil deployed ‘surrealist techniques to shape a new kind of narrative of Afro-diasporic life and history in the Caribbean.’ If Ortiz’s music is adamantly innovative and forward-looking, in other words, it reminds us of it’s deep roots in traditions of Black experimentation.” Crole Renaissance combines intellectual depth, emotionality and creativity to create a fascinating musical statement.

Tracklist:

1. L’Etudiant noir
2. Seven Aprils in Paris (and A Sophisticated Lady)
3. Lgitime Dfense
4. From the Distance of my Freedom
5. Premire Miniature (Crole Renaissance)
6. The Great Camouflage
7. Deuxime Miniature (Dancing)
8. We Belong to These Who Say No to Darkness
9. The Haberdasher
10. Lo Que Yo Quiero es Chan Chan

UPC: 7640120194413
Label: Intakt Records
Release Date: 9.12.25
Format: CD