01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 5, 2005

When Donald King heard Osmany Paredes play at the Providence Black Rep, he knew that one night a week of jazz wouldn't be enough.

The Friday-night series is booked for the next few months, and King didn't want to wait that long to bring the Cuban pianist and his quartet back. So now there will be jazz on Saturday nights at the busy downtown cultural center as well.

"I wanted to bring him in for a month, and I couldn't," King remembers. So Paredes will be at the Black Rep for the next three Saturdays, kicking off a three-week rotation that goes along with the two-week rotation on Fridays.

Paredes, 32, started playing the piano at age 7 in his hometown of Santa Clara, Cuba, and began studying formally at age 8. At age 20, he went to Mexico, where he played for several years. He now lives in Boston.

On his CD, Osmany Paredes con Menduvia (Menduvia is the band he recorded the album with), Paredes' piano playing is by turns precise, percussive and volcanic in its dynamism, with blindingly fast runs a trademark (such as on "Amigos" and "Cuadras Cha-Cha"), all over conga-dominated rhythms alternately sinuous (as on "Seven Steps") and propulsive ("Atomic").

Paredes lists as influences Cuban and Latin jazz giants such as Israel "Cachao" Lopez (with whom Paredes played in Mexico), Chucho Valdez and pianist Emiliano Salvador -- the driving last track of the CD is called "Sonido Emiliano (Emiliano Sound)." But he also cites jazz pianists such as Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans.

Paredes adds, through an interpreter, that he's been influenced by the "filin" movement in Cuban music. Filin (a derivation of the word "feeling").

"That particular style is very important and has been very influential in my performance," Paredes says. "My father is also a musician, and he liked that style. He always advised me to listen to that style, because it's a mixture of the ballads from the United States, fused with the rhythm and harmony of Cuba."

One of the pioneers of the style, singer Francisco "Fellove" Valdes, sings on Paredes' album. "When you listen to that style, it's like if you were listening to Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by Joe Pass," Paredes says. ". . . It is mostly for the singers, but there is a lot of instrumental music, like with Chucho Valdez."

The filin style, Paredes says, is more an evolution than an offshoot. "I think that when that style began, it was always influenced by jazz. But the filin is slow. The jazz that was played in the '40s was more what is known as Latin jazz. That's the difference that I see. But it comes, really, in sequence. One comes from the other, and it evolves."

Perhaps Paredes is influenced by the expressive quality of filin, but most of his playing is anything but slow.

"I try to bring something new," Paredes says. "It's hard to tell you specifically what my contribution is to this music, but every time I play I pour myself into this music and I give everything that I have."

The Osmany Paredes Quartet plays at the Providence Black Repertory Company, 276 Westminster St., Providence, Saturday night at 8. Admission is $5; call (401) 351-2984.

Hasbro benefit

Local rockers M-80, Slik Willy and The Lingo are three of the bands (along with Luck Over Spent and Throwback) at a benefit concert for Hasbro Children's Hospital on Saturday night at the URI Memorial Student Union, in Kingston, at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $5 for students, $7 for the public. It's run by the musical-charitable organization Music Lives. Call (401) 874-3787 for more.

Plug into Tim O'Keefe

Tim O'Keefe has been a one-man electrical band around these parts for more than a few years now, and on his Surface Sounds CD, he combines the eclecticism of skillful sampling, the minimalist repetition of the remix and a haunting, slow-moving but still memorable collection of hooks.

He's making a live appearance tomorrow night at the Century Lounge, 150 Chestnut St., Providence, with Matt Everett on viola and cello, Ryan Rooney on guitar, flutist Umberto Crenca and turntablist Sensual Dan. Call (401) 751-2255.