Time Is Now Featuring Roy Hargrove

From the liner notes: Ramon Valle's oeuvre falls into the jazz category, yet touches many other genres, and borders on many other musical forms. Like most jazz musicians, he believes in taking risks and says, ''We have the mission to translate the music to the people.'' The piano is his instrument of choice, but he sees it more like a choir or a mini orchestra, with a combination of chords that can make any sound he wants. Jazz has always mixed with other cultures, other sounds and musical styles, which the Argentine writer Julio Cortazar once defined: as being ''...like a bird that migrates or emigrates or transmigrates; it is rain and bread and salt, something completely beyond national ritual, sacred traditions, language and folklore: a cloud without frontiers, a spy of air and water...that brings Mexicans together with Norwegians and Russians and Spaniards. With this new recording, Ramon Valle takes on the role of musical time traveler, as he experiences and interprets, from an up close and personal vantage, the music that is happening today. His inspiration came from watching music videos with his children; Dayla, 7, and Fabio, 10. Younger artists like Rihanna, Bruno Mars, various rappers, and Michael Jackson, who he describes as ''the greatest.'' ''That gave me the idea to explore what it is that moves this timeless generation. And what they are trying to express with their music.'' Constantly searching for freedom and communication in his compositions and original arrangements, he set off on an odyssey in search of the source, which he says, ''functions as the engine'', exploring with his third eye, fine-tuned ears and heart. ''Children are only interested in the present, not the past nor the future. This music is about right now. The possibilities of the internet have created a universal intelligence that is growing at an unrivaled speed, and therefore, young people, continue to surprise us... -Joan Gannij (Amsterdam, November 2017)