First solo piano outling reflects his love of classical, jazz and boleros. After a string of seven exhilarating, clave-fueled recordings with variousensembles, including his dynamic, Grammy-nominated New CubanExpress from 2012 and its 2013 followup album, Expectativas, acclaimed pianist-composer Manuel Valera decided to take a more introspectiveroute on his eighth album as a leader. His first-ever solo outing, theaptly-titled Self-Portrait reflects the Havana-born musician’s classicalbackground along with his love of jazz and the Cuban boleros that hegrew up with. And while he readily admits that the prospect of recordingwithout the support of a burning rhythm section and killer soloists wassomewhat daunting, the results are sublime and enchanting.