Angélique Kidjo and Pedríto Martínez

Monterey Jazz was tremendous - those photos coming soon. Here's the first gallery from San José Jazz Summerfest.

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ENGLISH: Our hearts are with everyone affected by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey.   Cuba was hit hard by Irma, and Primera Linea, which was to take place this week (see our post of July 4), has been postponed to November 27-30, 2017.  You can see more information and get updates here. 
ESPAÑOL:  Nuestros corazones están con todos los afectados por el huracán Irma y el huracán Harvey. Cuba fue duramente golpeada por Irma, y  Primera Linea, que iba a tener lugar esta semana (vea nuestro puesto del 4 de julio), se ha pospuesta al 27-30 de noviembre de 2017. Más informacion y actualizaciones están disponibles aquí.

OTHER EVENTS OF INTEREST

Louisville, Kentucky:  Louisville has a growing Cuban-American musical colony and community, and The Clifton Roots, Jazz and Heritage Festival is presenting local favorite Cosa Seria, led and powered by some very talented Cuban conservatory graduates, on Thursday, September 21, as well as  with pianist Elio Villafranca on Friday, September 22.  More information and tickets are available on the Clifton Center website. 

Baltimore:  Chuchito Valdés is performing in quartet at An die Musik LIVE! in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, Sept. 22 at 8pm and 9pm.
The rest of the quartet for these performances includes Rafael Monteagudo on drums, Steve sachse on bass and Julio Matta on Conga. This writer has heard Rafael and Steve with Chuchito in Chicago - this should be excellent. More details and tickets are available on the An die Musik LIVE! website. 


Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:  
Albertico Lescay, one of the leading lights of Cuba's Nu Jazz movement, has been spending enough time in and around Pittsburgh during his visit (which ends next month) that I won't be shocked if that city starts showing up as a locale of serious interest to fans of Cuban Jazz within a few short years - he has engaged in an ongoing musical dialogue with several progressive Jazz musicians there (including with members of the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, which fuses Jazz and indigenous music).  His next performance in Pittsburgh is on Monday, September 25 at the Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium at the University of Pittsburgh, and he is presenting the music of Formas with the musicians he has been collaborating with here.     This concert is free and open to the public, and there is a Facebook event page. 

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First, tomorrow night Pedrito Martínez joins Gonzalo Rubalcaba at SF Jazz at 7:30 p.m.

This year's Monterey Jazz.has an amazing lineup. The Pedrito Martínez Group plays Saturday at 8:45 at Dizzy's Den and Pedrito also plays Friday in a tribute to Dizzy Gillespie, and Sunday with Angélique Kidjo on the arena stage. PMG absolutely shredded it at SJ Jazz - don't miss it.

 From PMG's 2012 Monterey Jazz performance 

                         Pedrito Martínez Group at this summer's San José Jazz Festival

Pedrito with Angélique Kidjo at San José Jazz Festival

Pedrito with Gonzalo Rubalcaba at last year's SF JAZZ performance

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Miami, Florida, Saturday, September 9:
Sintesis, one of Cuba's most important Afrocuban Fusion groups,  will be performing at Copper Fest at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 Northeast 125th Street, North Miami, Florida..  They are the last of four bands and the festival and are scheduled for 9pm.   Degnis Bofill, one of Cuba's most impressive young percussionists (and a 2016 JoJazz winner as a soloist) will be on tour with them.  More details about Copper Fest can be found on the Copper Fest web page. 

New York, Saturday, September 9:
Albertico Lescay will be playing with Arturo O'Farrill and Blitz  at the 4th Annual Music on Southern Blvd Festival (Southern Boulevard and 163rd St, NYC)  at 12:30 in the afternoon.  More information is available at the Casita Maria website.  This is an excellent opportunity to hear Albertico,  one of Cuba's rising young Jazz and NuJazz  artists who is visiting a few cities in the Eastern US.  He has been collaborating with a few groups while here, and one hopes that we will eventually be able to see his ensemble, Formas, perform in the United States. 
As for Arturo O'Farrill, he has been doing a lot of impressive work both in the studio and on stage with musicians from Cuba and may now have the most extensive current resume of such projects among Jazz musicians in the US.

Palm Springs, California, Saturday, October 14:
Most of Chuchito Valdes' recent outings in the US have been with a trio,  this is an opportunity to hear him with percussionists Calixto Oviedo and Luis Conte as well as Diego Figueirdo, Carol Welsman and Geraldo Aguillon.   More information and tickets can be found at tickets.psmuseum.org.






Chuchito Valdés, incidentally, will soon release a new album, Sueño que te beso, in collaboration with Juan Poch.  More on this in the future.

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