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Alejandro Falcón Returns to the Core of Cuban Musical Language on Falcón in Blue

New York—Dot Time Records is proud to announce the release of Falcón in Blue, from Havana-based composer, and arranger Alejandro Falcón. As part of Cuban Notes, the ongoing artistic and cultural project produced by Johanan Bickhardt, founder of the label, and guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, this first album of the series revisits foundational Cuban genres—among them danzón, son, rumba, cha-cha-chá, and bolero—from the perspective of the present. Rather than treating these forms as heritage pieces or nostalgic artifacts, Falcón approaches them as living languages, shaped by memory, experience, and artistic exchange across borders. The album reflects a broader commitment to collaboration between Cuban and international musicians.

Throughout the project, Cuban music is understood not as something fixed or folkloric, but as an evolving practice sustained through dialogue, listening, and continuity. Falcón in Blue follows a period in which Falcón explored more experimental territory, including symphonic composition and music for television. Here, he returns consciously to the heart of Cuban musical language, not to repeat familiar ideas, but to rethink them. He has described the album as a kind of rebirth: one that recalls the spirit of his 2010 debut, Claroscuro, while expanding it through new compositions, highly inventive arrangements and carefully chosen guest artists.

Many of the album’s pieces are rooted in personal dedication. “Una tarde en Puerto Padre,” a danzón composed during the pandemic, pays homage to the late pianist Emiliano Salvador, subtly echoing Salvador’s own musical ties to Puerto Padre and turning remembrance into intergenerational dialogue. “El Rey David,” written for Falcón’s son, offers one of the album’s most intimate moments, while the title track, “Falcon in Blue,” becomes a statement of artistic identity, bringing Cuban rhythmic sensibility into conversation with the emotional depth of the blues.

The album’s collaborators are central to its concept and meaning. Featured guests include saxophonist Ted Nash, heard on “Ted in Havana,” trumpeter Rachel Therrien, trumpeter, Maykel González, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, saxophonist Janeu Abreu, flutist Orlando Valle “Maraca,” tenor saxophonist Emir Santa Cruz, and bassist Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez . The rhythm section—Ruy López-Nussa, José Julián Moregón, and Arnulfo Guerra, —provides the album’s pulse and spiced foundation.

Shaped by Falcón’s rich experiences, his studies at Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte —as well as by the teachings of his mentor the composer and pedagogue Roberto Valera—, Falcon in Blue reflects a compositional vision grounded in intuition, discipline, and emotional clarity. The result is an album that listens backward with new depth. With Falcón in Blue, Alejandro Falcón reaffirms his place in contemporary Cuban jazz as a composer for whom tradition is not a boundary, but a living source of renewal.

Alejandro Falcón piano
Arnulfo Guerras Bass
Ruy López Nussa Drums
José Julián Morejón Bongoes, Percusión