A nomination of Cuban music to the Grammy’s always a story. This time it’s jazz. This time is Roberto Fonseca, who received ovations in Europe and Asia and North America to be placed next to Biuka, Omar Sosa, Wayne Wallace and Paquito D’Rivera in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year.
And if that were not enough, the Washington Post has included Yo (Jazz Village / HarmoniaMundi, 2012) within the top ten musical productions of 2013. An album that the report said “detonates the walls surrounding the Afro-Cuban jazz and rearranges fragments that make up an exciting self-portrait”.
Somehow, Roberto Fonseca knows that these awards will open portals to Cuban jazz genre worldwide. At 38, these things are known. Especially with the career of Temperament, founded in 1997, with saxophonist Javier Zalba.
For the Cuban musician, fusion has become central core of his work, even when the bolero and filin marked the early years of his career. Like Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo. Like hip-hop.
Maybe all the influences of his music thrives on, Roberto Fonseca wanted his album to be a place where all cultures are welcomed, respected and heard equally, and Yo, particularly, was conceived as a bridge between modernity and tradition, he told reporters. Hence the production dates with artists from Mali, Senegal and Yemen, as Baba Sissoko, Sekou Kouyate and Fatoumata Diawara, for example.
