Duo Cueco & Villarroël

(FRA/CHILE)
modern & free jazz with Latin & Indian influence

Within Ultra Music’s piano theme this rare combination of ivories and Persian zarb drum has probably the hardest driving groove of all the piano duos. Having worked together and recorded several

albums, since the late 80’s, they do original material as well as very personal versions of, for instance, compositions by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Carla Bley.

Frenchman with Spanish roots, Pablo Cueco might be the most famous zarb player outside Iran. He has studied the instrument with its master Jemshid Shemirani. He is especially adept also with the Brazilian

berimbau and Uruquai’s repique. Cueco has taught percussion in several French Conservatories and led the Transes Euopéennes Orchestra and its sidekick record label. He belongs to the Denis

Collin Trio and has collaborated with John Cage, Luigi Nono and the Indian flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia.

You can hear echoes of percussion also in the Patricio Villarroel’s piano style. He came to France from Chile in 1969 “by accident” and plays also drums, especially tables, which he

studied with the Nepalese master Krishna Govinda. He has worked extensively with Indian musicians, but his iconoclastic piano style sounds definitely Latin, though not in the obvious way. Villarroel has

played in the Dharma Quintet, Skuas, QJM and SK-DH, not to mention the many bands he has been part of with Cueco.