Saturday November 25th, 2023, 10:00 PM – JazzNotJazz.
Today eight pieces with a slightly longer playing time. The double CD “Live In Cuba” provides two. Live in Cuba is a concert recording by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in the capital Havana, in 2015. Artistic leader of the big band is trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The program consisted of a mix of – and cross-pollination between – American jazz and Afro-Cuban music. Sold out halls full of enthusiastic Cubans. Marsalis’ son, Simeon: “The crowd clapped, cried and laughed, clearly recognizing a sound that resonated deeply, although it had not been heard live for decades.”
2/3’s Adventure opens with Afro-Cuban rhythms, accompanying percussion, and then transitions seamlessly into bebop style. Then goes back to…. and so forth. Long solo by bassist Carlos Henriquez, the composer of the piece.
The Sanctified Blues-From Congo Square takes us back in time, to the elemental blues and polyphony of New Orleans. With a real finale.
Dizzy Gillespie (trumpeter/composer/bandleader) played an important role in introducing Cuban influences into American bebop. His composition “Things to Come” is also part of the Live in Cuba album.
The actions of the Americans in Cuba were a direct result of President Obama’s relaxation of bilateral relations between the two countries. The Chicago Tribune wrote that this trip by the jazz orchestra has done more for American-Cuban relations than politics has done in sixty years.
The full programme is in the Guide.
JazzNotJazz – Jan Pieter Overmars
