There are some projects that take some time to mature, in this regard, time is relative; a whole life can change in a single moment, and stray towards different paths. The journey lasts as much as it needs to: a few days, weeks, months, years, perhaps longer than that. A great example of this is El Cubista (The Cubist), by Miguel “Chuck” Rodríguez, as it has been a fifteen-year journey. 

 

Chuck Project started as an idea around 2003 in a workshop with Alger Erosa. There he met the music of Marc Berthoumieux through a CD. The impact was immediate. Right there Miguel had a musical conversion experience by acknowledging something alien as his own. During his trips to Montreal, Miguel purchased all of Marc’s records and listened to them over and over again. There he found his own voice and root, and started composing following that inspiration. For more than ten years the impulse matured until it reached El Cubista. 

 

The El Cubista project matured and built up in time, it had creation moments in 2005, 2008, 2011, up to 2014 in which it was almost ready. 2015 arrived with an invitation extended to Marc to take part, play in the record and play live with the project. It was all planned for a week, performances and recording. The bassist went from support to leading musician of the ensemble, the very life of the music that sounded was the guide, the musicians were the medium, the recording was the footprint. Life and music had a new gathering, one that was fertile, loving and energetic. And a French-Mexican connection arose.

 

The sound of the El Cubista project is shaped after the French music folk style, the whole project was thought like that, triggered by the effect Miguel had when he listened to Marc’s records. The sound is enriched with the compositions contributed by Iraida Noriega and Edgar de la Torre.

 

The root of a musician is not a conscious one, it is expressed through its fullest and most vigorous musical voice. Miguel Rodríguez’s root was dormant, it surfaced when he listened to Marc’s music. The moment of expressing such vital coincidence beyond the purely musical, that is El Cubista. 

 

Text: Luis Jesús Galindo Cáceres

Translation: Sharbel Pimentel

Liner Notes for El Cubista, by Miguel Chuck Rodríguez - 2018