CUBA!

2011 Havana International Jazz Festival Travel Package
Wednesday 14 to Monday 19 December. Go for it!

HOT, THROBBING, LIVE Latin rhythms morning, noon and night on the ultimate Latin jazz and Cuban culture dream tour! CUBAN JAZZ MASTER Chucho Valdés and the Cuban Institute of Music (sponsors of the 28th Edition of the Havana International Jazz Festival, also known as Havana Jazz Plaza) warmly invite you to come to Cuba and meet its people on the Official 2012 Havana International Jazz Festival Tour.

By popular demand Cuba Education Tours has worked hand-in-glove with the Cuban Institute of Music and the Havana Jazz Plaza Organizing Committee to offer a deluxe jazz-only travel package. Jazzoids went last year and highly recommends that you GO FOR IT! http://www.havanajazz.org/

President Carter Visits Cuba

Citing the fundamental incompatibility between policies of Cuba and the U.S., based on more than half a century of efforts by leaders in Washington to disrupt and bring about changes in the communist regime of Fidel and Raul Castro, President Carter visited Cuba to explore ideas on how United States-Cuba relations might be improved. Read More: Trip Report by The Carter Center

Seattle Beats the Drums for Afro-Cuban Bands

2011.04.01 – 19:06:33 CUBAHEADLINES/ radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Havana, Cuba.- Two of the best Cuban folkloric bands — Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars — will perform in Seattle within the next few days. Read Original Article here

Juan DE Marcos and the Afro Cuban All Stars

The man behind the Buena Vista Social Club, Cuban bandleader, producer, and extraordinary impresario, Juan de Marcos, brought together the cream of Cuba’s expatriate musicians, friends, and long-time collaborators to form the Afro-Cuban All Stars. After several years of tremendous and unexpected success following their genesis in the early 1990s – including four Grammy nominations, featuring in several documentaries and films, and receiving many other distinctions – the All Stars have certainly become one of the best-known and successful Cuban orchestras today.

Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley April 5-7, 2011

Los Munequitos de Matanzas

The legendary Los Muñequitos de Matanzas has been touring and electrifying audiences around the world for more than 50 years. The ensemble’s singers, dancers, and percussionists have delved deeply into all forms of Cuban music from its signature rumbas and “sons” to the stories, songs, and rituals that are its African roots. The New York Times hails their work as “spectacular sensual dancing and some of the most complex drumming to be heard in this hemisphere.” Hey guys – here’s the real World Music deal making a pass through Seattle! Let’s support them!

Meany Hall Sunday April 3, 2011 8 PM

Jazzoids visits Cuba!

Jazzoids was allowed to make a year end visit to Havana with its colonial-era architectural grandeur and vibrant street life providing a suitably moody backdrop for an internationally renowned event, the 26th edition of the Jazz Plaza 2010 International Festival. The Festival was organized with the sponsorship of the Cuban Music Institute and the National Center of Popular Music; and, was presided over by maestro Chucho Valdes.

The Buena Vista Social Club gave Cuban music an international reputation, and Havana is a city that is permeated with music. Cuban jazz legend Chucho Valdés was the artistic

director of the Jazz Festival and founder of the group Irakere, which featured the world-famous Arturo Sandoval. The official headquarters of the Festival was the newly-restored Hotel Riviera de la Habana with performances around the city and The Casa de la Cultura Plaza.

We brought back some wonderful video and photographs which we will continue to share. The following is one of the highlights of the Havana Jazz Festival recorded by Jazzoids.com. Also visit our Sideshow page: CUBA Sideshow!

For American and Cuban Jazz, More Riffing, Fewer Rifts

The loosening of Washington’s restrictions on travel to and from Cuba has recently resulted in much more cultural exchange than in the past, and the jazz world has benefited in particular.

Last month the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra visited Havana, and Chucho Valdés, the renowned Cuban pianist, performed a series of concerts in New York. The group AfroCubism, which includes Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, plays at Town Hall in Manhattan next Tuesday, and on Dec. 6 and 7 the Cuban dance band Los Van Van will be at the club S.O.B.’s; the Latin Grammys will be held in Las Vegas on Nov. 11.

Read The New York Times report about the good jazz news coming out of Cuba this fall.

http:// NYTimes.com/CubanJazz

Cuban Jazz Sensation/Quincy Jones Protégé
Makes Seattle Debut at Dimitirou’s Jazz Alley

You will be hearing the name Alfredo Rodriguez for many years to come. This is what I was thinking as I attended a recent performance featuring the phenomenal nearly 25 year-old Rodriguez with his trio at Jazz Alley (8/31 & 9/1). Expectations are high for any artist coming via the intro “Presented by Quincy Jones” and we were not disappointed.

: He is “The One”

The opening number lasted a good ten minutes before the bass and drums joined in. The bass player is a former Bulgarian, Peter Savoy, with Francisco Mela, a fellow former Cuban, playing the drums. The combination of these three musicians works exceptionally well as they appear to be firmly on the same page musically. The crowded, candle-lit Jazz Alley room listened with rapt attention to this expressive and dynamic trio to ensure they didn’t miss a single note.

Rodriguez’ inspirations are broad and diverse. His evident classical training at the conservatories in Cuba underpins the seemingly improvised explorations in jazz and the result is a fascinating journey into an artist’s soul. Among many others, Rodriguez claims a strong influence from Keith Jarrett which is apparent. However, he takes that explosiveness further down the melodic path almost as though he were conducting the piano as a symphony orchestra, so complete does his mastery of the instrument appear to be. Several times he added in a foot clave while managing to command the entire keyboard, the range of his facial expressions from grimace to pleasure indicating his complete absorption in his creations. The most beautiful passages floated on Cuban melodies that are likely bittersweet endeavors for this young musician as he defected to the US in 2009, leaving his family in Cuba.

This young man is a prodigious talent, well worth seeking out and following. He has only just begun.