For those unaware, Gonzalo Grau comes from a very strong musical legacy. He began his musical studies at the age of five in Caracas, developing skills in many instruments from the viola da gamba to the flamenco cajón and many keys in between.

He has recorded over fifty CDs and on a diversity of styles and instruments, performing, producing, and composing, Gonzalo Grau bridges both classical and popular music worlds.

A Band, a musical dream, and an extended family all in one project. It all started in 1998 out of the curiosity and musical dreams of a group of young Berklee College of Music students. Playing old salsa covers, Grau (its director) decided to rearrange these, exploring a renovated sound, mixing influences from both old and new, blending the styles of Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York and Venezuela with other music of the world.

La Clave Secreta gives space to anything. A Bit flamenco, greek traditions, hip-hop, funk, or jazz. A classic string quartet? Why not? An R&B singer? Sure! The openness to many music styles is the band’s strongest asset.

La Clave Secreta’s latest production, De verdad verdad, or in English, For Real, portrays all of the band’s assets. It is a for real friendship, playing for real arrangements, and this entire album was recorded live in one single space, with the whole band in a circle, with no separation at all between instruments.

That’s who they are ... La Clave Secreta ... De verdad verdad (for real).

1. Comando Z (5:38)
2. La ruñidera (5:17)
3. Las cajas (4:14)
4. Buscando la melodia (5:28)
5. Mis cuatro acordes (6:51)
6. Moros y cristianos (5:56)
7. Bájale dos (5:56)
8. En la mochila (5:10)
9. El Inventor (6:48)
10. Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing (5:17)
11. Estatus complicado (5:21)
12. Un heladero con clase (8:18)
13. Mi soniquete (6:41)

This refined, cultured, alive with veins of magnificent scintillation, quite like I haven’t heard in many a year, new recording opens on the vibrantly ecstatic Comando Z and the smooth hipsway of La ruñidera and then this crack team next brings us the flourishing Las cajas, the gentle finger-snapper Buscando la melodia, the upbeat and joyous Mis cuatro acordes, before presenting us with the yearnful balladry within Moros y cristianos and the atmopsheric Bájale dos.

Along next is one of my own personal favorites from this new album, the wholly embracing En la mochila and that is in turn backed by the quietly frenetic El Inventor, then they give us their simply incredible rendition of the Stevie Wonder classic Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing, the album rounding out on the organically-fueled Estatus complicado, the swing within Un heladero con clase, closing on the euphoically-charged Mi soniquete.

Our style? Latin music is our foundation, adding spices and influences from everything we like, reveals Grau, jazz, funk, rock, classical, R&B, neo-soul, and our own cultural backgrounds, of course. All of this mix is what makes us unique.

Speaker of many musical languages, translator of many styles and creator of new fusions, Gonzalo Grau’s latest secreta is out now!

www.gonzalograu.com

www.laclavesecreta.com