Emilio Teubal - Música para un Dragon Dormido (2013)

"A gifted musician and composer [with] an inner ear that is sharp and intelligent" - Latin Jazz Network

"He sounds like no one else. This is a CD worth checking out, and a musician worth watching." - The Big City Blog

"Complex and forward thinking while remaining elegant, accessible, and even danceable at times." - Jazz Inside

"Without being too superstitious about it, Música Para Un Dragón Dormido (music for a sleeping dragon), is a reference to the Chinese horoscope as we contemplate 2012, the year of the Dragon. During 2012 I became the father of a little 'dragon', and being an older dragon myself, this event made think about the strong connection with this new creature, and the huge footprint that year left on my being," said Teubal. When the pianist released previous recordings he defined the music as "Argentine jazz", which to him meant, original compositions using elements and rhythms from Argentinean music, plus improvisation. He feels that, "this label it’s not accurate for this album. Of course I hear a lot of Argentinean influences on it: Un simple Objeto has a strong Chacarera flavor (chacarera is a folkloric Rhythm from the north of Argentina). The Constant Reinventor has a 'bordoneo,' (a guitar-like figure very common in Tango music) and several other typical things from Tango music, etc," explained Teubal.

For Teubal, however, the stylistic accuracy of these Argentinean elements is not the goal onMúsica Para Un Dragón Dormido, it's just one of the many habitants coexisting in the music. That artistic clarity gave him the freedom to include elements from other world music, and also kept him wide open to what these amazing musicians heard in his music, without being stylistically rigid about it. "I am very happy with the final result. The music still sounds Argentinean but it has a strong cosmopolitan New York sound in it, with strong hints from other world music. At the end of the day we are all coexisting in this city, and on this album, bringing our own influences to the palette and creating a new sound fed by all those influences."