Alfredo Rodriguez Found Inspiration Walking Along Coral Way

For many Miamians, Coral Way is just another road. But for pianist and composer Alfredo Rodriguez, the tree-lined thoroughfare that connects the western edge of Brickell to Coral Gables is fraught with meaning. Rodriguez, who moved to Miami just before the start of the pandemic in 2020, walked along Coral Way alone while everyone quarantined at home.

"It was the street I lived on. I would think about the future and the stressful situation," he tells New Times. "I started putting together rhythms and melodies while walking that street."

Those long walks on Coral Way were a respite while his life was turned upside down. Playing music has been central to Rodriguez's life since he was 6 years old, living in Havana.

"My father was a musician and a famous figure in Cuban television," he explains. "They got me into a conservatory, which was very rigorous. All my teachers trained in the Soviet Union and let you know if you didn't practice, they would kick you out and replace you with another kid."

In 2009, he got an offer he couldn't refuse; he was invited to collaborate with legendary composer and producer Quincy Jones, who has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Dizzy Gillespie. "Los Angeles was the first place I lived in the U.S. after I crossed the border from Mexico and started working with Quincy."

Rodriguez decided to relocate to Miami so his newborn daughter could be closer to his family, but then, of course, disaster struck.

"Right when I moved to Miami, COVID started," he remembers. "I couldn't play a show for 18 months. That was something I never did."

So he started walking.
"Coral Way became my whole life. I was alone, thinking about when we could all be together and embrace again," he notes.

Eventually, the world started reopening to concerts and recording sessions, and after digging through the voice memos Rodriguez recorded on his phone, he crafted a few demos on his piano to send to his bandmates. After a few days of rehearsals, followed by only four days of recording, he had a new nine-song album he decided to title Coral Way.

Expect to hear selections from the Latin-jazz fusion album when he performs at the Miami Beach Bandshell on Saturday, January 6.

"It's going to be very unique — my most adventurous concert," Rodriguez warns. "I'll have a seven-piece band, and I'm bringing musicians from Brazil, Nicaragua, Argentina — it's going to be a multicultural journey." He'll also reinterpret several pop-cultural favorites as jazz standards, including the Super Mario Bros. theme song by composer Koji Kondo and Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Saturday's concert is part of the eighth-annual South Beach Jazz Festival, a four-day event from January 4-7 that will host 18 performances, many of which are free. Rodriguez is excited to catch many of the acts mentioning American jazz vocalist/composer Cécile McLorin Salvant and organist Matthew Whitaker as personal highlights.

Though South Florida isn't known as a jazz hotbed, Rodriguez thinks this festival, along with the upcoming Miami edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, is a sign of the city's musical coming of age.

"Miami is growing up so much. There are so many more possibilities to listen to jazz," he says.

Later in 2024, Rodriguez will collaborate with Nu Deco Ensemble for several concerts. He'll also travel abroad to Lithuania and Austria to perform with local symphonies.

Alfredo Rodriguez & Friends. 8 p.m. Saturday, January 6, at Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; sobejazzfestival.com. Tickets cost $41.20 to $82.40 via dice.fm.