From the key of the gulf to the city of light

Born in 1936, under the astrological sign of the Scorpion, in the Havana neighborhood of El Fanguito, classically trained pianist/composer/arranger Alfredo Rodriguez (affectionately known among his numerous friends as Alfredito) left his native island in 1960 and moved to another island called Manhattan, where his love of jazz led him to take lessons with Bill Evans and Albert Dailey.

From 1964 to 1972, he played with some of New York’s top Antillean acts, including such fellow expatriates as the masterful flautist Belisario Lopez (described by his piano-playing disciple as "an old-fashioned gentleman known for his irreproachable honesty and honorable conduct") and the eccentric vocalist Victoria Yoli, alias La Lupe or La Tirana (The Tyrant). Characterized by her trademark sensual groans and uncontrollable swing, La Lupe had become famous years earlier in Havana for her exhibitionist and dramatic stage behavi