Cuban-born pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa, has built a global following over the past two decades since winning the prestigious Montreux Jazz Piano Competition in 2005. He has released nine acclaimed albums as a leader and was featured as part of the 2011 all-star project, Ninety Miles, with Stefon Harris, David Sanchez, and Christian Scott. Born into a musical family in Havana, his music reflects the richness of the Cuban musical tradition with its distinctive combination of folkloric, popular, and classical elements, as well as its embrace of improvisation. On his most recent release, Timba a la Americana (his Blue Note debut), which he is currently on tour to promote, López-Nussa followed a strong urge to escape the conventional thinking about song form and structure that has defined Latin jazz since the 1950s, and created “a vibrant album teeming with joy and pathos,” that was inspired by his decision to leave his Cuban homeland and begin a new life in France. Produced by Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, the album has been called a “provocative, lavishly colorful, effortlessly unified song cycle that amounts to a top-to-bottom modernization of Latin jazz.” As López Nussa explains, “we sought new settings for the clave patterns that are the heartbeat of Cuban music, grabbed elements of danzon, the foundational dance that began in Matanzas in the late 1800s, and the stately son tumbao riffs that frame the songs of Beny Moré and so many others. We worked with ancient bata drum rhythms used to summon the deities, then incorporated them into the choppy polyrhythmic agitations of modern improvising collectives . . . and linked the catcalling mambos of Dizzy Gillespie and Machito to modern ideas about song structure.” Tonight, as on the album,  it’s López Nussa, piano; Gregoire Maret, harmonica; Lucques Curtis, bass; and Ruy Adrian Lopez-Nussa, drums. Grammy winning, Swiss born harmonica player and composer, Grégoire Maret has emerged as a unique and compelling new voice across a wide spectrum of the modern jazz world. He has played with Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Cassandra Wilson, and Marcus Miller to name a few and has been a guest artist on recordings with everyone from Prince, Sting and Elton John to Dianne Reeves, Toots Thielemans, Raul Midón, Tito Puente, Kurt Elling, and more. ​Maret has essentially redefined the role of the harmonica, with Marcus Miller declaring that he is “carrying the instrument into the 21st century with prowess, passion, and creativity.”