"Marialy Pacheco meets Hamilton de Holanda, Joo Kraus, Rhani Krija, Max Mutzke, Omar Sosa, and Miguel Zenon, six accomplished figures from around the world, each a master of their craft. With so much expertise and musicality, a collaborative performance involving all would risk losing something precious. Instead, we have individual rendezvous here. The Cuban jazz pianist extracts the best from each encounter. The title of the CD succinctly captures the concept: DUETS. As clinical and sober as it may sound, it conceals much more—much, much more.

No other ensemble size insists so persistently on terms from human life: there's frequent mention of "nakedness," "intimacy," "dialogue," or "conversation," even a musical "relationship." The duo promises pure communication: people converse while entertaining others. There's storytelling, questioning, answering, contradicting, ironizing, flirting, absorbing thoughts, continuing, redirecting, intimate moments alternating with passionate debates. Duets speak of the art of dialogue, the ability to have a constructive conversation, not talking past each other, contributing oneself without dominating the other.

For something with such anthropological significance, it might be surprising that this form of musical exchange is relatively young in the history of jazz. Gary Burton and Chick Corea set an early milestone in 1972 in Munich: after completing their solo concerts at a festival, the organizer asked them to play a duo as an encore. Forty-two years later, it's Chick Corea, in the context of a solo concert in Dortmund at the Piano Festival Ruhr, inviting a young pianist from the audience to the stage for a duet—Marialy Pacheco.

Chucho Valdes, a grand seigneur of Cuban jazz, once referred to the pianist as the "greatest among young piano talents." She had won a youth competition in Cuba where Valdes was the head of the jury. Pacheco's mother directs a renowned choir in Cuba, known beyond national borders. When the choir participated in the Chor-Olympiade in Bremen in 2004, Pacheco, who was present, decided to stay in the city of the Town Musicians. After an extended stay in Australia, the pianist returned to Germany, initially back to Bremen, and now she resides in Dortmund. In 2012, Pacheco won the prestigious Montreux Solo Piano Competition.

Cuban jazz pianists have always left a lasting impression—from Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Hilario Duran to Omar Sosa, Ramón Valle, and Roberto Fonseca, and to David Virelles, Alfredo Rodriguez, and Rolando Luna. Caribbean temperament and an excellent technique acquired through rigorous classical training consistently blend into a playing culture that is breathtaking in the truest sense of the word—in both positive and negative ways. The excesses of playing, which we believed were left behind and joyfully discarded with the failed, breathless, and expressionless high-speed fusion, still exist. Perhaps not as loud, but as virtuosic and flawless, maintaining an impact that never diminishes. The admiration for Cuban jazz pianists increases in the face of the abundance of exceptional talents from a small country.

Virtuosity, passion, and joy of playing, liberally unleashed and unburdened after strict classical training—all these qualities are audible in Marialy Pacheco as well. However, let the gender specialists decide whether the striking and pleasing lack of machismo in her playing is only because she is a woman. The impression never arises that she needs to prove anything. It's about the music, the musical. She is less a pianist than a musician. And less Cuban than a well-traveled artist interested not only in jazz but, pardon the cliché, in MUSIC.

The six colleagues whom Marialy Pacheco invited for duets at the renowned Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg are also cut from the same cloth. Musicians who are citizens of the world: a Puerto Rican living in New York (Miguel Zenon), a Cuban residing in Barcelona (Omar Sosa), a Moroccan from Cologne (Rhani Krija), a world-conquering Brazilian (Hamilton De Holanda), a trumpeter from Ulm who recorded one of his albums in Havana (Joo Kraus), and a native of Waldshut-Tiengen, known throughout Europe for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest (Max Mutzke). Musicians without stylistic blinders, passionate, each authentically in their own way, equipped with the virtues that are fundamental for a duo: the ability to listen, fully engage with the counterpart, leave the ego at the studio door.

The commonality, the unity between these pairings, is as audible as the distinctiveness of each duo. One makes the other valuable. A broad spectrum alone, a variety of influences and expressions, is not a value per se. In this sense, eclectic albums that present a bit of everything and ultimately feel like promoting a large assortment abound. However, this is not about saying, 'Look and listen to how broad my range is!' It is the production of a musician who is as rooted in tradition as she is open to the new. Marialy Pacheco already knew Joo Kraus, Rhani Krija, and Max Mutzke, and they play with a freshness as if it were their first encounter. The duets with Hamilton de Holanda, Miguel Zenon, and Omar Sosa were first meetings. That they sound like longtime friends speaks volumes. With Duets, Marialy Pacheco practices the most intimate, direct, and concentrated form of musical exchange. And in doing so, she swings the door wide open, very wide."

For more information, visit www.marialypacheco.com