Cry Me a River

Hilario Durán brings the full scope of his artistry, the depth of knowledge of musical genres in the perfect storm of big artistry on Cry Me A River. The celebrated Cuban-Canadian composer and piano-master Hilario Durán leads his 19 piece ensemble with special guests Paquito D'Rivera & Horacio "El Negro" Hernández in a stellar big band recording - the first in 17 years.

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Through the course of the album the Grammy-nominated and Juno Award-winning Durán actively throws overboard melodic, harmonic, and structural hooks that have become expressively blunted through overuse, building big band charts that bloom in color and texture and atmospheric beauty.

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Durán integrates a myriad of genres into his singular style on the album - traversing innovations that have made his music uniquely breathtaking. He points to Claudia , a song he arranged while he was touring as Musical Director with Valdés, and features D'Rivera on alto saxophone, as Dizzy Gillespie's Night in Tunisia. Fantasia Impromptu is a kind of jazz-meets classical, via Brazil and Cuba, featuring D'Rivera on clarinet.

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Of the title song, Cry Me A River Durán says: " Elizabeth Rodríguez is just fantastic on violin. In her solo she plays deep in the Cuban tradition and follows that with an incredible improvisation!" he says. " Pacá por Juanito is a tribute to Juanito Márquez ," Durán explains, "He was one of the greatest musicians of Cuba the conductor of Orquesta de la Radio y Televisión in the 60's. I learned how to arrange for big band, by studying his scores for that orchestra." Another original is Mambo y Tumbao . "Here, I highlight both traditional forms (mambo) and the revolutionary innovators of Cuban music - the great Bebo Valdés , who invented the 'batanga' rhythm, and the influential bandleader Pérez Prado . And of course, I Remember Mingus is a tribute to Charles Mingus , the great composer, bassist, and bandleader. Check out Marc Rogers ' solo here," Durán says enthusiastically.