Robert Mitchell [piano]
Omar Puente [electric violin, acoustic violin]
The pair met in 2001 in London. Robert, impressed on hearing the Cuban's ten-piece Raices Cubanas band, invited Omar to join his group, Panacea, on stage for a series of live performances, and to guest on its first CD. This duo collaboration is a relatively recent development but has already included several UK performances as well as visits to Morocco and Belgium, and a celebrated performance at the Havana International Jazz Festival, captured on a 45-minute documentary screened in Cuba. "It's an obvious challenge" says Robert, "just violin and piano filling the stage for a two-set show -but it's exciting! It's an honour to play with Omar, and our similarities (classical music, jazz) work equally as well as our differences (Latin music)". Robert's mercurial playing combined with the forceful playing by Omar Puente sounds gently lyrical at times but with the potential in going into a more rhythmic playing groove based.
Omar Puente was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1962. He studied classical music under Russian and Cuban masters and spent his nights learning Latin jazz with Chucho Valdez and Arturo Sandoval. On graduating, Omar toured with the Jose Maria Vitier band and then joined the Nacional Symphony Orquestra de Cuba (NSOC). He moved to the UK in 1997 and formed Raices Cubanas, a collective of immigrant Cuban musicians often guest led by the late Kirsty MacColl. Omar recently toured with Denys Baptiste's Let Freedom Ring project; he's also a member of Courtney Pine's touring band, and is involved with the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to Raices Cubanas, Omar leads the six-piece Cubania.
Press
"Mitchell's rippling arpeggios and fluttery high notes combined with chirrupy violin to give a somewhat literal, extensively notated, musical depiction that yielded into strident and dazzling improv."
Mike Hobart, Financial Times, 20/12/2006
"[Robert Mitchell is] a young UK virtuoso of McCoy Tyner-like precision, excitement, boldness, and scope. Formidable improvising skills, remarkable breadth and absorbing unpredictability."
The Guardian
"Omar Puente's combination of raw, sawing dissonance, audaciously gliding new melody and burning intensity lifts the session into a mood it hardly loses again."
The Guardian
Recordings
Duo Mitchell/Puente, Bridges, November 2006 F-IRE, F-IRECD 016.
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