Omar Puente is a fighter. He has had to be as a violinist and jazz musician, best known for his extensive work with Courtney Pine, relocating from Cuba to Bradford and finding his own artistic path on the creative jazz and latin circuit in the UK. On his debut From There To Here he draws together all the strands of his ideas so far, from charanga to the furthest possibilities of jazz violin. He has also had to fight hard to support his wife Debbie Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, as her high profile case went to the Law Lords for clarification on the rights of the partners of those seeking self-administered euthanasia abroad following terminal illness.

Kevin Le Gendre talks to Omar a week before the Law Lords ruled in Purdy’s favour. References to Africa abound in the jazz canon. Some reach a long way back. Whether he had edged through Sandaga market or trekked to Touba, Clarence Williams hailed a Senegalese Stomp in 1927 and others, from sainted John Coltrane to his blessed protégés Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, would also write epistles to the continent and its many countries in the years that followed, perhaps with Langston Hughes’ words ringing in their ears. He who “raised the pyramids above the Nile”.

One might also mention dozens of majestic compositions by Randy Weston that pay tribute to a continent whose resources human and cultural have decisively shaped the New World. The pianist has had a direct engagement with terra firma, the soil itself, having spent several years living in both Morocco and Nigeria. For Cuban violinist Omar Puente a similar emotional and creative spark was lit when he visited the latter country a few years ago. This, in turn, inspired his composition ‘Motherland Pulse’.

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #134 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE Blue Note CD