Dory's Jazz Club: Harold López-Nussa Trio

Havana based composer and pianist HAROLD LÓPEZ-NUSSA is a musician whose musical voice is now being heard around the world. El Viaje (The Journey), López-Nusa’s recent debut release on Mack Avenue Records, visits many genres of music and travels smoothly between Harold’s classical, native and jazz inspirations. Soon after release, the album reached No. 1 on iTunes Jazz Chart and No. 2 on Amazon’s Jazz Chart. The recording features The Harold López-Nussa Trio with younger brother Ruy López-Nussa on drums and percussion, himself a star in the distinguished López-Nussa Family of renowned Cuban musicians. Recent performances at The Montreux, Monterey, Montreal and Tokyo Jazz Festivals; The Kennedy Center; and The San Francisco Jazz Center have fortied Harold’s reputation as a profound musician of rising stature who has fully integrated his classical training and love of the jazz continuum with his Cuban roots and soul.

The release of López-Nussa’s music stateside is a significant postscript to President Obama’s recent trip to Havana. The conservatory-trained pianist is the first Cuba-based musician (he has dual citizenship in both Cuba and France) to release an album internationally since the lifting of many of the restrictions associated with the longstanding trade embargo. States Mack Avenue Records President Denny Stilwell, “Harold follows in the modern day tradition of exemplary Cuban pianists who have recorded and toured internationally. We feel he is an emerging artist with immense creative potential to breakthrough.”