A Jazzy Year’s End

Photo: Nacho Vázquez

As 28th edition of the Jazz Plaza Festival approaches—set for Dec. 20-23—tons of memories come to mind about previous years’ events. Thanks to my mother, a fervent jazz fan, since childhood I have enjoyed recordings of the 20th century’s first great language of sound.

And when a group of jazz musicians decided to get together for a few days in the small theater of the Casa de Cultura in Havana’s Plaza district, inspired by Bobby Carcassés and the now almost-forgotten Armando Rojas, I was there with my dear old mom and a few friends from Saúl Delgado high school, where I was enrolled at the time. Not even the most rabid optimists among us back then, as we were gathered at the building on Calzada and 8 streets, imagined that that first underground encounter of local jazz musicians would become one of the most anticipated festivals in Cuba among musicians and the public in general.

Several decades after the revolutionary inrush into the cultural life of 1980s musicians that was spurred in large part by the Jazz Plaza festivals, common elements can be found among many of the new talented young musicians who have emerged, and most of whom were discovered thanks to Jojazz. This is a competition and festival for young jazz musicians held every November since 1999. And despite their logical differences in style, these musicians have much in common. When examining how they have been influenced in melody, harmony and timbre, one must go beyond national influences to a universal cultural legacy.

As a jazz lover who follows the latest developments in that genre among our country’s musicians, I think that it is necessary to emphasize the importance of a competition like Jojazz and a festival like Jazz Plaza. They have been an open door for Cuban musicians who are interested in jazz to demonstrate to the public and to their colleagues their own particular way of approaching this music.

What is amazing about this emergence of formidable jazz musicians since the 1980s, men and women who have been successful both at home and as part of the diaspora, is that there are no academies among us for teaching this specialty; musicians in general printed scores and methods accompanied by CDs and videos for training and studying the genre of their choice. Despite that, those of us who attend Jojazz or Jazz Plaza sessions can testify to the fantastic state of jazz created by Cuban musicians today.