On March 26, 1996, inside the wood-panelled EGREM/Areito studios in Centro Habana, a group of musicians gathered without knowing they were about to make one of...
If you’ve heard the Buena Vista Social Club, you’ve heard the unforgettable voice of Omara Portuondo, one of Cuba’s most iconic singers. Now in her 90s,...
A Contemporary Love Letter to Cuban Musical Heritage With Caminando piango piango, their fourth studio release, Orquesta Faílde reaffirms its status as one of Cuba’s most...
On her album Havana Nocturne, the singer Aymée Nuviola has certainly masterfully and deeply interiorized the classic Cuban music [and dance] forms of canción and the...
Preamble Within the current renaissance of popular Cuban music, coupled with the seemingly eternal presence of its first cousin American Jazz, we are once again witnessing...
There is something about the great Cuban chanteuse, Omara Portuondo that bears comparison with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington or – more particularly, perhaps – Billie...
Featured photo of Janio Abreu by Danilo Navas – 35 Festival Internacional Jazz Plaza 2020 – Teatro Martí, La Habana. This month we present a playlist...
My moon app announces that in 14 hours the Supermoon of May will be here. During a full moon I often get inspired to write about...
Chapter four [final] of our series: 35th Jazz Plaza International Festival in Havana In recent months I found myself in profound reflection of the term “Ancient...
Ocho años han pasado desde que el matancero Ethiel Faílde (el sobrino tataranieto del creador musical del danzón Miguel Faílde) y un grupo de talentosos músicos...
Eight years have passed since Ethiel Faílde (he’s the great-great-nephew of the musical creator of the danzón Miguel Faílde) and a group of talented musicians created...
Did Miguel Faílde (1852-1921) create or even “consciously stumble” upon (both better epithet than “invented”) the now-iconic danzón dance form that Cuba gave the world; or,...
Ethiel Faílde, great-great grandson of the incomparable Miguel Faílde is, indeed, the keeper of the flame of danzón; the true successor of the iconic ensemble that...
If some of you, like me, devour a new recording even before you first play it, turning the package over and over in your hands to...
Damian Draghici is far from being a regular guy, although the Cuban and Spanish musicians with whom he made The Gypsy Cuban Project would probably call...