July 25, 2025
Cuban-born pianist Harold López-Nussa has released “Niña Con Violín,” the newest single from his upcoming Blue Note Records release NUEVA TIMBA. The album is a celebration of López-Nussa family legacy with the jazz vanguard meeting multiple eras of Cuba’s musical history to present a definitive vision for the future of Latin jazz. Releasing September 5, NUEVA TIMBA features a core of unmatched talent—Harold’s brother, Ruy Adrian López-Nussa, on drums; Luques Curtis on bass; and the harmonica virtuoso Grégoire Maret. The album cover features a painting by Harold’s grandfather Leonel López-Nussa, while “Niña Con Violín” was written by his uncle, the acclaimed pianist Ernán López-Nussa.
“‘Niña con Violín’ has always been part of our family’s soundtrack,” Harold explains. “My uncle Ernán wrote it for a friend of my brother’s, a young violinist, and they played it together as children. I’ve heard it thousands of times, but I had never played it myself… until now. While preparing the music for the album, the idea of recording it came up, and it ended up becoming a trio piece. The surprise was realizing that my daughter, after two years of studying violin, could also play it. We learned it together and performed it for my uncle during one of his visits to Toulouse. Today, I feel this piece belongs to our family’s heritage.”
“The memory I keep of my grandfather is of a man working in his studio while listening to music, especially classical music,” recalls Harold. “He would spend the entire day there, surrounded by canvases and brushes. When we went to visit him, we would play ball in the street and, between games, step into the studio to drink some water. It was always extraordinary to cross that threshold: to see his paintings, to feel the smell of fresh paint. His work is full of musicians, women, and characters he admired, all seen through his own eyes and his unique universe. Even now, when I look at his paintings, I can still feel his presence. And I realize, once again, the power that art has to endure beyond time. Having his art on the cover brings me closer to my family, to those childhood memories, and makes me feel accompanied.”
NUEVA TIMBA is the second album López-Nussa has recorded for Blue Note following 2023’s Timba a la Americana. A live/studio hybrid, it was captured at the club Le Duc des Lombards, a jazz institution in Paris, and then reshaped and enhanced in post-production. The project’s musical aim is twofold: documenting López-Nussa’s thrilling prowess as a live performer while also embracing the pristine audio and conceptual ingenuity that’s possible in the studio.
For all its virtuosity and innovation, however, NUEVA TIMBA is foremost a journey—a deeply personal narrative rooted in profound, often painful life changes that reflects López-Nussa’s recent move from Cuba to France. The album tells the very real story of a man displaced: a young father finding his way in a new country while missing his homeland with heartrending intensity; all the while, he’s nursing other emotional wounds including the passing of his mother, and the compounding torment brings him to a state of despair. Slowly but surely, sunshine begins to poke through the clouds, and he discovers a path forward. Something like happiness returns to the horizon. Consider NUEVA TIMBA musical tears of joy.
