Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC) will dress up this February as Vestiphobia, a fine and experimental New York vision of fashion that has come to collaborate with Cuban artists in the creation of alternative clothes that question the so-called ready-to-wear line that has invaded the world. The initiative is being boosted by three New York creators: Willard Morgan, Uta Bekaia and Steve Fagin under the wings of Ideal Glass. Morgan, creator of the Ideal Glass Gallery, has a long relationship with Cuba. The U.S. artist has participated in events like the Jazz Plaza Festival and the International New Latin American Film Festival, and is a founding member of the No-Budget Gibara Film Festival. Photo: Vestiphobia.org In essence, the Morgan-Bekaia-Fagin trio landed in Havana with a four-act extravaganza show that “surgically cuts pieces from dance, performance, sculptural wardrobe, cinema and music” and in which clothes will be the star. According to its organizers, Vestiphobia focuses on that contradictory nature of dressing not only as a need but also as “a luxury, a shield and even a weapon.” The show combines experimental fashion, video art, music, dance and autobiographical narrative to entertain and enrich our understanding of clothes throughout time. Grettel Carbo,...

Leyendas.COM defends a particular taste for music from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s in last century’s Cuba. The group approaches a time in which genres like the son, mambo, cha-cha and bolero reigned. The group appropriates that feeling and gives it back with contemporary elements. These visions from yesteryear are mixed with current ones in its CDs Pasión por los 50 and Saborseando, both from Abdala’s recording company’s Unicornio label, to give songs from cardinal decades of the island’s musical history. Very much to the point when displaying that repertoire less resorted to today by the popular bands, Leyendas.COM has built since March 28, 2010, when it was founded, a monument to those generational classics that shouldn’t be forgotten, like “A mí qué,” by Jesús Guerra; “La culebra,” by Obdulio Morales; “Conversación en Tiempos de Boleros,” by René Touzec; “Vereda Tropical,” by Gonzalo Curiel; and “Rumba de cajón,” by Juan Pablo Torres, among many others. Bobby Carcassés, an experienced Cuban jazz musician and showman, has said that the group led by Oscar Pedreira and Juan Carlos Bonet “has won the respect in the wide-ranging spectrum of music because of its high-quality work, their cohesion and above all handing over their...

Throughout the two years since Havana and Washington announced the reestablishment of relations, art and culture has been one of the spheres with the greatest exchange. Cuban artists have talked to OnCuba about the benefits they have perceived from this. Alexander Abreu is of the opinion that bands like the one he leads could form part of the big recording companies’ regular catalog. “A great many Cuban groups can benefit from the good news that is happening. There are already several bands that are in the international circuit and are having a good moment,” he said. Alexander Abreu. Photo: Claudio Peláez Sordo. The trumpet player, who in the last two decades has recorded in Cuba the majority of the son albums, is prudent regarding the possible contracts that could be signed with the major recording companies. “We have to see how they open, what their nature is and in this way we will be able to work in a way that is new for us. I believe that in upcoming years all this will bring a satisfactory result and that the progress and prosperity for the defenders of this genre will be seen,” the author of Me dicen Cuba explained....

Jazz, a bridge between two cultures, has been a connection between Havana and New Orleans. Both cities share the passion for a genre that also describes and pictures them, and which have found in Jazz Plaza 2016 a direct connection. This is the opinion of famous trumpet player Terence Blanchard, who from New Orleans declares himself a connoisseur of the longstanding relations between his city and Havana, both marked, he said, by the influences of African music. Christian McBride. Photo: Armando González. Blanchard has always had the intention of visiting the island and last week that dream came true. “This trip to Cuba is to learn to play. What’s most important for me is that I am 54 years old and I’m only 54 minutes away from Havana. That’s why I’m already home today.” Surprised by the interpretative quality of the young musicians, the trumpet player recognizes the common points between jazz and Cuban music, which are born “from sorrow and the desire to express our roots.” His colleague, bassist Christian McBride, coincides with him on this, since he has the mixture of Cuban and U.S. rhythms in his genes. “Not only did I grow up with the rhythms of...

Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard, Rachel Flowers, Arturo O’Farrill and the New York group Snarky Puppy are featured in the extensive billboard of Jazz Plaza 2016, to be held December 15-18 in Havana. The Festival organizers announced that the Festival will kick off with Chucho Valdés and will bring together on the stage another two colossuses of the genre, bass player Christian McBride and trumpet player Terence Blanchard. With these two U.S. instrumentalists and singer Omara Portuondo, the night of Valdés’ return to this event promises to be one of the most attractive. Meanwhile, Terence, considered one of the principal figures of the so-called neo bop, will perform precisely after Chucho, together with The E. Collective. Throughout his successful career he has played with Larry Willis, Donald Harrison and Mulgrew Miller; he has intervened in numerous film sound tracks, fundamentally in Spike Lee films; and his records have won four Grammy awards. Chucho Valdés. Photo: Roberto Ruiz His compatriot Christian McBride will be heard in the Mella Theater on December 16 together with his trio. McBride forms part of a generation of musicians in which Brad Mehldau, Avishai Cohen, Brian Blade and Joshua Redman also stand out. He has three Grammy...

On December 9 and 10 Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis will pay tribute to the Cuban son and its international variants with the holding of the World Salsa Championships. Atlanta will welcome participants from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, New Zealand, Slovenia, Italy and Spain, among others. They will participate in a difficult competition where dance couples and winning elite teams or finalists in national or international competitions will weigh up their talent and will vie for the titles in Salsa On-1 – Los Angeles style -, Salsa On-2 (mambo), Cabaret – tricks and acrobatics allowed -, and Teams (6 or more contestants). As a novelty, for the first time the Championship will allow competing in the “same sex” division. Organized by World Dance Group, an Atlanta-based music/sports company whose mission is to globalize salsa, the Championship will feature as attractions the performances of the Cuban group Charanga Habanera, as well as Puerto Rican Ismael Miranda and Dominican José Alberto El Canario. Noel Roque, president of the company, said to OnCuba that they will be two days of music and dance that will venerate salsa. Roque affirms that the genre is liked...

Two Cuban music heavyweights, Chucho Valdés and Los Van Van, are aspiring to the Anglo-Saxon 2017 Grammy Awards, the American Recording Academy announced on its list of nominees. Chucho Valdés in the Ancestors Concert, in Havana’s Karl Marx Theater. Photo: Roberto Ruiz. Renowned pianist Chucho Valdés and his Mensajeros Afrocubanos hope to win the award with Tributo a Irakere: Live in Marciac (Comanche/Harmonia Mundi), a CD that pays tribute to an essential group in the Cuban music scene and which includes pieces like Juana 1600, and the classics by Valdés with the Mensajeros Afrocubanos Yansa and Lorena’s tango. In the Best Latin Jazz Album section the CD has as opponents others equally valuable like Entre Colegas, by Andy González; Madera Latino: A Latin Jazz Perspective on the Music of Woody Shaw, by Brian Lynch and a group of artists; Canto América, by Michael Spiro, Wayne Wallace and La Orquesta Sinfonietta; and 30, by the Da Paz trio. Los Van Van are nominated with their CD La Fantasía. Photo: Roberto Ruiz. Meanwhile, La fantasía. Homenaje a Juan Formell (Egrem/Sony Music), by Juan Formell and Los Van Van, was nominated in the section of Best Tropical Latin Album. The CD, recorded in...

Jazz heavyweights in Cuba and the United States are again taking Havana as a meeting point. The Jazz Plaza International Festival is already preparing its 32nd edition in Havana with the added novelty of performing in Santiago de Cuba, as a present to music lovers. The festival organizers have just announced the presence of U.S. trumpet player Terence Blanchard and his compatriot, bass player Christian McBride, as well as Cuban pianists Chucho Valdés, Roberto Fonseca and Miguel Núñez. They are all heading a deluxe cartel that will attract lovers of the genre next December 15-18 to clubs like La Zorra y El Cuervo, the Plaza municipality House of Culture, the Mella Theater and other spaces, which almost add up to some 20 stages. According to Roberto Fonseca, who for the first time will be the honorary president of the event, sharing that function with Chucho Valdés, the idea is that the 32nd edition of Jazz Plaza will revitalize the Festival. The young and renowned pianist (the usual accompanist of musicians like Omara Portuondo and director of the Temperamento group) affirms that he is motivated by the fact that “they all want to come to the play on the island, get...

Laritza Bacallao is a talented singer who conquered the Cuban public a few years ago with a big hit that put her overnight on the map of the national music scene. Titled “Que suenen los tambores” (Let the drums play), the single invited her fellow Cubans to enjoy themselves and dance to the beat of the drum, as a way to forget their misfortunes. An emerging star, Bacallao has just returned from a tour of Europe, after performing in the United States, and is getting ready for a big concert for what she called her “natural public”: Cubans. The concert will take place on September 4th, at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. The show will be directed by Rudy Mora, and will feature performing companies like Free Dance and PMM, and singers Candido Fabre and JG, who will join Bacallao in her interpretation of “Hello baby,” one of the most popular songs in local radio stations right now. “There’s going to be a lot of positive energy and happiness there that day because that is what we want to convey to the public,” said Bacallao, who will also be using the occasion to launch her new disc, “You only...

In Santiago de Cuba, a city in the eastern part of the country, old American cars are not predominant in the taxi business like in Havana. Instead, people use motorcycles to get from place to place sitting behind the driver, who carries an extra helmet for clients. Rides can cost between 10 and 20 pesos (50 cents to 1 dollar), depending on the distance, and sometimes on the time of day; night rides could be a little more expensive. People are so used to getting around like this that some even claim that it is not possible to get to know the city in depth any other way.

Although many in Cuba think that local music is well known abroad, the truth is that except for Buena Vista Social Club, Los Van Van band, and one or two singers/songwriters like Silvio Rodriguez or Pablo Milanes, Cuban musicians are quite unknown in many Latin American countries, and rarely perform in festivals in the region. A gathering held in Havana for the first time in recent days under the title “AM-PM: Latin America in Defense of Its Music” is seeking to revert that situation. The event was organized in the new context of the likely re-establishment of relations between the United States and Cuba, to start exploring the possibilities to introduce local productions to the powerful American music scene and circuit of festivals. Gabriel Turielle, director of Contrapedal Records and President of the Music Management Forum for Latin America (MMF LATAM), said that music managers and agents on the island will soon experience an avalanche of work. Turielle, who was born in Uruguay, said that he had witnessed how the interest in Cuban music had increased in some markets following the announcement that the U.S. and Cuba would be negotiating a rapprochement. “At MMF LATAM we are very interested in...

When singer Isaac Delgado decided to leave Cuba and go live in the United States in 2006, he was running the risk of losing the audience he had cultivated for years to the disconnection that existed at the time between the two countries. When the word spread that he wouldn’t be coming back to Cuba, his songs faded out at local radio stations, and even a few of his fans refused, on their own initiative, to listen or dance to his music in the privacy of their homes and parties. Eight years would pass before “El Chevere de la Salsa”, as he is known among timba followers, had the opportunity to perform in Cuba again. It was at a concert of Cuban singer song-writer Carlos Varela. It happened after Delgado decided to relocate from the United States to the island in 2014, and resume his local career, in a new context of improved cultural exchange between Cuba and the United States –and a renewed perception of artists’ interest to develop their careers on both sides of the Florida Strait. These first performances in his country of origin were his chance to get an answer to an inevitable question: had Cubans...

Nothing was described before Wednesday night. The temple of rock in Cuba, the Maxim Rock of Havana, was shaken by that indescribable music of the 1970s and 80s. "Rock and roll is dead?" somebody asked from the stage of The Dead Daisies. From the audience a resounding "No" was answer enough. The multinational band was responsible for two hours, to make known that classical edge of the genre, who its members consider as the "true" is beating. You have to ask John Lennon if he imagined seeing himself amid an audience as devout as that on Wednesday in Havana. The former Beatles would know that insularity was never a barrier to this "mechanical" gestated in the United States and England and enriched with the sounds of the countries of origin of its various performers, had such effervescence in Cuba. The Dead Daisies took care of giving life to it, as with Audioslave in 2005 or Sepultura in 2008. The blues tonality given by the keyboard, and the Afro-Cuban nuance of the island -contributed by two guests: the Cubans Jaimi and Ruy Adrián López-Nussa-, the group appeared on stage at the Maxim to conquer a "virgin" land in presentations of this...

In just four themes The Dead Daisies conquered the Havana musical chroniclers as good prelude to what the multinational band can achieve in two concerts in Cuba, scheduled for this week. A longing for two endearing decades: the 1970s and 1980s, was seen in the group mini concert on Monday in Cuban Art Factory. It is as Marcos Mendoza said this morning to OnCuba "at our age, the best music is that which comes from those years. It's the music that we grew all with. We are trying to represent that flag now of classic rock, to recreate that movement now in these times. " Determined to come to the island since September 2014 and complying with an invitation of the Cuban Institute of Music and the Network in Defense of Humanity-Cuba, the musicians expressed proud to be "one of the first to officially come from United States to Cuba. We've all talked about it and it's a pleasure to be with you now, honestly. "We try not to get into politics and connect with the culture itself, with people and share a few moments that also attract attention, to open the doors. All of us feel that way, "they...

Romantic and devoted the most sublime of feelings, Descemer Bueno appeared this Friday at the Karl Marx Theater outpacing notoriety that he has gained on the international stage. A recognition that, it's worth noting, he won with talent and commitment. Bailando, his most recent success on the album Sex and love, by the Spanish Enrique Iglesias, has the featuring by Bueno, Iglesias and Cuban Gente de Zona, and won three Latin Grammy awards last November. Descemer wanted to celebrate on Friday Valentine's Day with two concerts in his beloved Havana, the city that inspires him. In the first of these performances he was accompanied by three close friends: Omi Hernandez, who gave him the possibility of opening the evening; Michael Sierra, El Micha; and Kelvis Ochoa, with whom he recalled Quédate a single that belongs to the CD Amor y música which they made together with Egrem-, and with the theme they evoked Santiago Feliu, the troubadour who died in 2014. Minutes after the Friday concert, Descemer spoke with OnCuba. The artist explained the reasons for this presentation in the Cuban capital. "It is a gift to the people of Cuba, for my beloved Havana on the eve of February...

Telmary Diaz is a woman who has a lot to say on stage. She makes music without having completed academic studies and wins applause wherever she performs. She writes her prose, which carries a metric full of encouraging energy and inspired by the current, everyday Cuba. She sings, raps, admires great popular musicians like Juan Formell, members of the Buena Vista Social Club, Juan de Marcos and Afrocuban All star; loves rumba and flamenco, loves the sea and drinks the good vibes flowing from her Samara, the little girl who fills all her days. She talks to OnCuba without pause to explain how she conceived Libre, her second phonogram to arrive in the island from the hand of the Bis Music label and that she will present almost at midnight next Friday at the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center. Everything has a connection in our communicative bridge with the creator, who engaged with us during the few free minutes rehearsals for that concert at the Brecht have left her, where she will sing very personal songs, which summarizes several years of work and the long stay of six years in Canada. "It seems the feeling, the things that I lived there...

If you try to enjoy Salsa, Mambo, Cha Cha you should first consider that your original idea was inspired by the musical legacy of Chano Pozo, Damaso Perez Prado, Enrique Jorrín, Benny Moré, Celia Cruz, La Lupe and Juan Formell. Those attending next Friday and Saturday the Havana’s coliseum located in the central Linea street can enjoy a show that links the rich Cuban dance rhythms created by these world renowned artists. At its premiere on Wednesday, the show that is artistically directed by the singer Isaac Delgado and produced by Armenian-American Debbie Ohaian, specialized in this type of shows in New York, does not come to show us what is commonly presented about the Caribbean island. There is in it a strong intention to present the mambo, son, cha cha and rumba as expressions of a mixed and diverse idiosyncrasy, which has been enriched over time with the creative ingenuity of many children of this land. Two events make up a dramaturgical body that begins precisely with that African heritage so present in our sound. Then there is nothing better than La comparsa, by Ernesto Lecuona, to mystically delve into the twentieth century, essential period where several musical genres...

Presented as part of the 19th edition of the Mariana de Gonitch National Singing Competition, Laronte almost went unnoticed for a group of colleagues. The singer and dancer led a movement of pop exponents in the 1990s and his track Un misterio topped quite a few lists of radio hits. With the same smile and without time to leave mark on him, the artist takes by these days a brief stay in Havana, motivated by the contest sponsored by the Mariana de Gonitch Singing Academy, directed by Maestro Hugo Oslé. Laronte told OnCuba that his return to the island is "quite normal, and a very natural thing. I started very young and when you start at that age, you always have much more time because you're just beginning. Then you get complicated, because the contracts are longer, and that is what has prevented me from coming to Cuba ". And where have you been during this time? It is been almost 10 years I did not come. I live in Italy and from there I move to other parts of the world. I had to meet very strict contracts that limit me in many things. It is really more difficult...

While Ernán López-Nussa played the first chords in his known piece Momo in the Mella Theater, his nephew Harold was following him in another piano. Also, he was accompanied by Ruy and Ruy Adrian, father and son, both playing the drums, spectacularly. It was a concert by the López-Nussa family. Harold came up with the idea once. An international jazz festival asked him to introduce a project and he chose perfect musicians. Never before they had had the opportunity to perform in Cuba together, and the closing of the 30th Jazz Plaza gave them the chance, as Ernan said. They couldn’t leave out the paintings by Ruy and Ernan´s father, located at the end of the scenario which recreated that musicality they both passed as a legacy to Ruy Adrian and Harold. The fact is that the concept of family is quite ample, said Ruy on Sunday, and includes those loved persons that are always with us¨ he then mentioned Professor Teresita Junco, his wife, his father, and many others who are essential for him to live The López-Nussa family, accompanied by trumpeter Mayquel Gonzalez, made of the Jazz Plaza closure a remarkable night, which they marked even further with...

Created in a decade of musical effervescence as that of 1980, the International Jazz Plaza Festival has condensed in its 30 editions a growing movement of practitioners of a genre born in the southern United States, but that has become universal, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. No one questions today the contributions of Cubans to a rhythm that many consider more than music to enjoy, a lifestyle for those who love and grow it. And when valuing these indisputable Cuban connections with this area of loudness, the Jazz Plaza has been an emblem a lofty stage for figures such as Dizzy Gillespie, Tete Montoliu, Roy Hardgroove, Ronnie Scot, Arturo O'Farrill, Chucho Valdes, Emiliano Salvador, Bobby Carcasses and Ernán Lopez Nussa, among many others. The event also gave shelter to young artists who later gained notoriety by their virtuosity, as it has happened with Cuban César López, Yasek Manzano, Roberto Fonseca and Harold Lopez Nussa. Thirty editions have taken pulse to an artistic force that overflows the most unique places in Havana. Since the Plaza Cultural House -the place first staged the event, La Zorra y el Cuervo, the Jazz Café, and the Mella Theater and its Gardens; up...

Buena Fe duo devoted last Saturday its concert ¨Una luz por la esperanza¨ (A light of hope) to the Cuban doctors who are waging a battle against Ebola virus in Africa. There they sang songs of infinite tenderness, belonging to the musical career accumulated by Israel Rojas and Yoel Martinez in these 15 years. Twenty compositions shook the audience gathered at Havana’s Carlos III Avenue (from Boyeros to Infanta streets). ¨La Muerte¨ (Death), heartbreaking song played by Israel, was a posthumous tribute to Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez, collaborator of the Cuban brigade working in North Africa, who died last October at the age of 60, as a result of malaria with cerebral complications. Buena Fe also celebrated the recovery of another physician infected with the Ebola virus. They devoted ¨Miedos¨ (Fears), single belonging to its album Pi 3.14, to Dr. Felix Baez. In an unparalleled evening, the popular artists also sang to young researchers and the Federation of Junior High Students, an organization that precisely this December 6th celebrated its creation anniversary. Already in a post vespertine on their profile of social network Facebook, the artists invited their followers to share a unique night: "In a little while we go...

I asked Lazaro Morúa with play a blues with his harmonica in the style of those of New Orleans. I thought I would challenge hi, , but the artist, so used to these challenges, let out the most sensitive chords I had ever heard. "From a young age I'm very attached to this instrument, which is easy to learn and play. It is a common instrument. I have a method on this regard that I have not yet submitted for publication ", Morúa told OnCuba, this morning we agreed to unveil much of that half century he has been linked to music. When I confessed him that I was surprised about that his connection to American music, Lazaro blushed as he recalled those days in his native Sabanilla del Comendador, a town in Matanzas. There his father, a doctor and also musician of a jazz band, showed those roads to him and his seven siblings. "We used to listen to our parents sing for us. Each of us had to perform a song of time. That set us up for the future. This happened with my brother Kiki (Leoncio Morúa), who created Los Safiros and set up the voices of...

La salsa tiene mi son is a CD expected by the dancers on the island. Elito Reve, leader of the Charangón, wanted to put together in a phonogram hits from his father belonging to the 1990s, critical epoch in the history of the genre in Cuba and in when the so-called Boom of salsa originated. At the turn of the years, Reeve approached that period where the group was not asleep and offered a very unique style to the most popular genre in the archipelago. Songs  such as La Ruñidera, Muévete pa’ aquí, Mi salda tiene sandunga, Esa mujer and La celosa are back in the voices of virtuoso singers like Puerto Rican Gilberto Santa Rosa and Jose Alberto El Canario and Cuban Pablo Milanes, Israel Rojas, Haila María Mompié, Paulo FG, Mayito Rivera, Isaac Delgado, Juan Miguel Díaz Zayas (El Indio), Mandy Cantero, Sixto Llorente, Gente de Zona and Muñequitos de Matanzas, who repeated as guests, as they had already recorded with the orchestra in Matanzas tiene la llave, contained in the CD De qué estamos hablando. "This album is a tribute to my dad. It took us a year to record and to finish it. The people are...

For sure, that December 4, 1969 was a magical, founding, day for those men who initiated a revolution in Cuban popular dance music. Since then, Van Van has been a unique train that is followed by its infectious melodic cadence and innovative spirit of its creator, Juan Formell Cortina, who died last May in Havana. A national tour and the arrival of La Fantasia (EGREM 2014), the latest phonographic production of the group, have been litmus tests for the called Rolling Stones of salsa music, after the death of their founding director. However, the demanding dancer has felt the hurricane force of the orchestra and worth of its members, the same who will make the audience to move when arriving on December 5 with the rhythmic power to the staircase of Havana University, final stop of the long journey they will make through the archipelago and date in which they will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the band. With Santiago Alfonso as artistic director, the evening will start at 9:00 pm and will offer the performances of La Colmenita children's theater company and La Tabla orchestra, to then give way to the presentation of Van Van. Samuel Formell, its current...

They say that the traveler who drinks water from a Camagüey tinajón (large earthenware jar) stays to live on that land. For sure, the phrase has become a myth, which is transmitted by word of mouth. It remains though Camagüey city you visit and corroborate that there is no longer an overwhelming number of these containers in the houses. However, behind the expression there is a fascinating legend. Fernando Crespo, a researcher at the Office of the Historian of the City of Camagüey, proposes to reveal it for OnCuba readers. Crespo notes that this peculiar vessel is wrapped in 500 years of history, from the founding days of the former village of Santa María del Puerto del Principe. "When the settlers crossed the region they should bring containers to store food and water. The Spaniards, taking advantage of the relation of indigenous culture with clay thought of modeling these pots as larger containers for storing water and other things such as oils, grains ... "That way we can begin to talk about the history of tinajón and not from the seventeenth century when it was mentioned in the literature that there was a first container, and that they took some...