Letter from Havana

Editor’s note: The 35th annual Jazz Plaza festival in Cuba ran from January 14 through 19, and JJA member José dos Santos was there, as he has been from the fest’s start. Here’s his report, in Spanish as he wrote it, followed by a rough translation to English, and the colloquium schedule.

Más de cien sesiones en 26 locaciones diferentes, cinco de ellas en Santiago de Cuba, durante sólo cinco días de Festival, con más de un centenar de participantes de una docena de países, hacen del Jazz Plaza 2020 un acontecimiento que rebasa cualquier antecedente en La Mayor de las Antillas.

Soy de los que lo siguen desde que nació en 1980, humilde y nacional, en un salón de la Casa de la Cultura del municipio capitalino nombrado Plaza de la Revolución. Su ubicación no era tan céntrica como otras instalaciones pero no fue obstáculo para que, desde sus comienzos, se llenara.

Luego pasó a ser un acontecimiento, casi enseguida internacional, que requirió de otros espacios, más allá del patio que acogió la segunda edición. Así comenzaron a aparecer locaciones profesionales como el cercano Teatro Mella e incluso de aficionados como fue la sede de la Unión de Periodistas de Cuba, que una vez al mes acogía al renovado Club Cubano de Jazz, todos en El Vedado.

Recuerdo, como participante del Consejo Asesor que entonces existía, las discusiones sobre ampliar la convocatoria a otros puntos de la geografía capitalina que se brindaban para acogerlo y la negativa de algunos puristas de que el Jazz Plaza se quedara donde se le dio nombre.

Pasó el tiempo y, respondiendo a una música creativa de origen, la cita anual (la que por momentos cambió de fecha –la original fue un 14 de febrero—y de periodicidad) se expandió a otros territorios citadinos y, hace un lustro, a lugares remotos como es Santiago de Cuba, una excelente subsede con potencial propio, como otros muchos puntos de la nación que esperan su oportunidad. La dialéctica se impuso al dogma y la multiplicación de valores obligó a otro diseño.

Ahora, al repasar escenarios del actual Jazz Plaza 2020, esta 35 edición ofrece espacios abiertos inéditos como la escalinata del popular Pabellón Cuba, en la Rampa, y la Plaza de Armas, en la cinco veces centenaria Habana Vieja, entre otros ya con historia, como los Jardines de la heladería Coppelia y del propio Teatro Mella. Y no dudo que todos se colmarán de público.

Esta cita ha reunido a leyendas y estrellas del jazz mundial a lo largo de su historia (recuérdese a Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Carmen McRae, Roy Hargrove, Jack DeJohnette y Charlie Haden, entre otros muchos) con mayor mérito por haber afrontado la permanente hostilidad de las administraciones de su país de origen contra el nuestro, del que el jazz no ha escapado. Ahora, con la presencia de varios de sus músicos y especialistas se dará nueva muestra de que no hay barreras infranqueables a la confraternización cultural.

Se respiran aires de jazz en Cuba, quizás como nunca antes desde fechas tempranas, porque –que yo recuerde—nunca se ha hablado con tantos días de antelación, de este jolgorio musical en los medios de comunicación nacionales. Esa visibilidad pública responde a una mayor profesionalización de las estructuras organizativas, las cuales, no obstante, tendrán que seguir perfeccionándose en la medida que la marea jazzística aumente y haga más complejas las venideras citas.

Los participantes ya se sienten recompensados –anímica y musicalmente, porque aquí no hay viáticos ni pago de contratos: en la multiplicidad de escenarios se reúne la calidad siempre creciente, de lo autóctono junto a los invitados, de una música destinada a crecer continuamente en el gusto de la época actual y las por venir.

[José, forgive this clumsy translation!]

More than one hundred sessions in 26 different locations, five of them in Santiago de Cuba, during only five days of the Festival, with more than a hundred participants from a dozen countries, make the Jazz Plaza 2020 an event that goes beyond any other in the Greater Antilles. I am one of those who have followed this event since it was born in 1980, humble and national, in a room of the House of Culture of the capital city [Havana] named Plaza de la Revolución. Its location was not as central as other facilities but that was not an obstacle keeping it, since its inception, from being filled.

Then Jazz Plaza almost immediately became an international event that required other spaces beyond the courtyard that hosted the second edition. Thus began to appear professional locations such as the nearby Mella Theater and amateur ones such as the headquarters of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, which once a month hosted the renovated Cuban Jazz Club, all in Vedado. I remember, as a participant of the Advisory Council that existed then, the discussions about extending the call to other points of the capital's geography that offered to welcome the music presentations, and the refusal of some purists that the Jazz Plaza would remain where it was named.

Time passed and, responding to a creative music of origin, the annual appointment (which at times changed its date - the original was a February 14 - and its periodicity) expanded to other city territories and, five years ago, to remote places such as Santiago de Cuba -- an excellent outpost with its own potential, like many other points in the nation that await their opportunities. 

Now, when reviewing scenarios of the current Jazz Plaza 2020, this 35th edition occurs in open spaces such as the steps of the popular Cuba Pavilion, in the Ramp, and the Plaza de Armas, in the five-hundred-year-old Havana Vieja, and others already historical, like the Gardens of the Coppelia ice cream shop and the Mella Theater itself. I don't doubt that each site will be filled with the public.

This event has brought together world jazz legends and stars throughout its history (Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Carmen McRae, Roy Hargrove, Jack DeJohnette and Charlie Haden, among many others) with greater merit for having faced the permanent hostility of the administrations of their country of origin against ours, from which jazz has not escaped. Now, with the presence of several U.S. musicians and specialists, a new example will be given that there are no insurmountable barriers to cultural fraternization.

Jazz airs are breathed in Cuba, perhaps as vigorously as in its early dates, because - as I remember - there has never been talk in the national media so many days in advance of this musical revelry. This public visibility responds to a greater professionalization of the organizational structures, which, however, will have to continue to be perfected as the jazz tide increases and makes the upcoming appointments more complex. Participants already feel rewarded - emotionally and musically, because here there are no per diem or payment of contracts - in the multiplicity of scenes highlighting the ever-increasing quality, mixing natives with guests, for a music destined to continually develop, in relation to the current era and those to come.X

XV INTERNATIONAL JAZZ COLLOQUIUM "Leonardo Acosta In Memoriam" Cuban Art Factory - January 15-18, 2020 

ACADEMIC PROGRAM Wednesday, January 15 Ship 3
9:30 am - ACCREDITATION 10:00 am - 
10:15 am - OFFICIAL OPENING: A space Theorist for jazz in Cuba. 15 years of history / NERIS GONZÁLEZ BELLO (Cuba).
10:15 am - 12:00 am - SESSION: TAX / TRIBUTE TO CENTENARY TEACHERS: ADOLFO GUZMÁN. Moderator: YIANELA PÉREZ CUZA (ICM, Cuba). 
10:15 am - 11:00 am - CONFERENCE: Adolfo Guzmán: master of harmony in the song / YURIEN HEREDIA (CIDMUC, Cuba). 
11:00 am - 12: 00m - PANEL: Adolfo Guzmán in the Cuban musical discography Panelistas: MARTA BONET (UNEAC, Cuba), ADOLFO GUZMÁN (Jr) (Cuba), BEATRIZ MÁRQUEZ (Cuba) and JORGE ARAGÓN (Cuba). Musical presentation by: BEATRIZ MÁRQUEZ and JORGE ARAGÓN (Cuba). 
12: 00m - 12:30 pm - CONFERENCE: The migration of jazz in the United States and Mexico: cultures that have innovated within the genre or remain forgotten / ESTEFANÍA ROMERO (Mexico). 
12:30 pm - 1:15 pm - SESSION: TAX / TRIBUTE TO TATA GÜINES IN THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS NATURE. PANEL: Tata Güines and the melodization of rhythm. Stories to tell. Panelists: PANCHO AMAT (Cuba), ERNÁN LÓPEZ-NUSSA (Cuba) and YAROLDY ABREU (Cuba) Moderator: NERIS GONZÁLEZ BELLO (Cuba). 
1:15 pm - 1:45 pm - BREAK
1:45 pm - 2:30 pm - SESSION: THE JAZZ IN THE AUDIOVISUAL. DOCUMENTARY PROJECTION: The battleship Irakere / Director: Miguel Angel García. Presents: MIGUEL ANGEL GARCÍA (Cuba-Switzerland).
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm - PRESENTATION OF MAGAZINE DIGITAL AM: PM Presented: RAFAEL GONZÁLEZ ESCALONA (Cuba), LORENA SÁNCHEZ (Cuba) and DARSI FERNÁNDEZ (SGAE, Cuba). Nave 4 
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm - SESSION: JAZZ AND CUBAN MUSICAL INDUSTRY / Presentation of jazz phonograms of ABDALA Productions, 2019. Moderator: ROXANA RODRÍGUEZ VILA (ABDALA, Cuba). 
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm - PRESENTATION OF THE DVDs: - The 80. Tribute to La Aragón / ORLANDO VALLE “MARACA”. - I'm calling you / RODRIGO GARCÍA AMENEIRO. - Benny Moré: a century later / HÉCTOR QUINTANA. Present: MABEL MUÑIZ (Cuba), ORLANDO VALLE “MARACA” (Cuba), ONI ACOSTA (Cuba), RODRIGO GARCÍA (Cuba), ALDO LÓPEZ-GAVILÁN (Cuba), PANCHO AMAT (Cuba) and HÉCTOR QUINTANA (Cuba). 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Musical presentation of: - RODRIGO GARCÍA Y CEDA EL PASO (Cuba). - HÉCTOR QUINTANA AND GUESTS (Cuba). 

Thursday, January 16 Nave 3 
9:30 am - 11:00 am - ILLUSTRATED TALK: The Mardis Gras tradition and the Cuba-New Orleans / MONK BOUDREAUX connection, BIG CHIEF DE LAS AGUILAS DORADAS (United States) and NED SUBLETTE (United States). Musical presentation by: CHIEF MONK and the percussionists YAROLDY ABREU (Cuba), HENRY RUIZ (Cuba), MARIO MESA (Cuba), MIGUEL LAVASTIDA (Cuba) and RAÚL ZAPATA (Cuba). Special appearance of: CIMAFUNK (Cuba). 
11:00 am - 12: 00m - SESSION: THE JAZZ IN THE AUDIOVISUAL DOCUMENTARY PROJECTION: Jazz in the Americas / Director: ALEJANDRO MAYOR Present: ALEJANDRO MAYOR (Cuba), JORGE ALFARO (Cuba) and ESTANISLAO CORDERO (Cuba) 
12:00 - 1:30 pm - SESSION: JAZZ AND CUBAN MUSICAL INDUSTRY / Presentation of jazz phonograms Bis Music Producciones, 2019. Moderator: MARIANELA SANTOS CABRERA (Bis Music, Cuba). - DVD PRESENTATION: Together again. Concert in the Ignacio Cervantes Hall / JANIO ABREU Y AIRE DE CONCIERTO & VICTOR GOINES. - PRESENTATION OF THE CD: Grecolandia / JOSÉ MIGUEL CREGO "EL GRECO". Present: VICTOR GOINES (United States), JANIO ABREU (Cuba), JOSÉ MIGUEL CREGO, EMILIO VEGA and JOSÉ MANUEL GARCÍA. 
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm - BREAK Ship 4 
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm - SESSION: FROM THE IDEA TO THE PRAXIS 
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - MASTER CLASS: Norwegian and Scandinavian folk and traditional music. Its influence on the melodic and thematic development of jazz songs / GRETE SKARPEID (Norway). Guest: ARUÁN ORTIZ (Cuba - United States). 
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm - MASTER CLASS: How to grow with jazz / ANDREA MOTIS (Spain). 
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - MASTER CLASS: Jazz in the Caribbean / SAMY THIÉBAULT (Ivory Coast) 

Friday, January 17 Ship 3 
10:00 am - 11:00 am - SESSION: TAX / TRIBUTE TO CENTENARY TEACHERS: LEOPOLDO “PUCHO "SCALANT. PANEL: Pucho Escalante: centennial trombone. Panelists: PEDRO DE LA HOZ (UNEAC, Cuba), BRAULIO HERNÁNDEZ “BABÍN” (Cuba), ANTONIO LEAL RODRÍGUEZ (Cuba) and EDUARDO SANDOVAL (Cuba). Moderator: YENTSY RANGEL (Cuba). 
11:00 am - 12: 00m - CONFERENCE: Life and music of Ismael Rivera. His projection in the jazz work of Miguel Zenón / NED SUBLETTE (United States) and MIGUEL ZENÓN (Puerto Rico). 
12:00 am - 12:30 pm - PAPER: Jazz criticism: history and importance of its existence for an artistic culture / ESTEFANÍA ROMERO (Mexico). 
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm - BREAK 
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm - SESSION: TAX / TRIBUTE TO THE TV PROGRAM "A TODO JAZZ" FOR THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOUNDATION. PANEL: All jazz: 20 years on Cuban television. Panelists: ROXANA DUVERGER (Cuba), ELIZABETH GRIÑÁN (Cuba), JOSÉ DOS SANTOS (Cuba), CARLO FIGUEROA (Cuba) and RITA ROSA ESTRABAO (Cuba). Moderator: NERIS GONZÁLEZ BELLO (Cuba). 
2:00pm - 3:00 pm - SESSION: EVENTS FOR THE CUBA PANEL JAZZ: JOJAZZ Contest. Platform for the development of jazz in Cuba Panelists: ALEXIS VÁZQUEZ (Cuba) and GLORIA OCHOA (Cuba). Moderator: JOSÉ DOS SANTOS (Cuba). PRESENTATION AND PROJECTION OF THE CD MAKING From Havana Jazz: looking to the future (CNMP and ABDALA Productions, 2018) / Director: EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ Present: GLORIA OCHOA and EDUARDO RODRÍGUEZ (Cuba). Nave 4 
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm - SESSION: FROM THE IDEA TO THE PRAXIS MAGISTRAL CLASS: Improvisation in jazz / DAVID LIEBMAN (United States). 
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - ILLUSTRATED TALK: Future generations: Trombone Shorty Foundation / Bill Taylor (United States) and student musicians of the foundation (United States). 

Saturday, January 18 Ship 3 
10:00 am - 1:00 pm - SESSION: TRIBUTE / TRIBUTE TO THE SOUND EXPERIMENTATION GROUP OF ICAIC (GES) FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOUNDATION. 
10:00 am - 11:00 am - PANEL: GES. A sound revolution in Cuba Panelists: SILVIO RODRÍGUEZ (Cuba), PABLO MENÉNDEZ (Cuba) and GERÓNIMO LABRADA (Cuba). Moderator: PEDRO DE LA HOZ (UNEAC, Cuba).
11:00 am - 11:30 am - PRESENTATION OF THE CD: GES / REAL PROJECT They present: ELA RAMOS (Bis Music, Cuba), ENRIQUE CARBALLEA (Cuba), RULY HERRERA (Cuba) and JORGE LUIS LAGARZA (Cuba). Moderator: MARIANELA SANTOS CABRERA (Bis Music, Cuba). 
11:30 am - 12:50 pm - DOCUMENTARY PROJECTION: There is a Group that says / Director: LOURDES PRIETO (Pablo de la Torriente Brau Center and ICAIC, 2013). Presents: PEDRO DE LA HOZ (UNEAC, Cuba). 
12:50 pm - 1:00 pm - BREAK 
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm - FIRST LINE EVENT - SESSION 1 PRO PANEL: Regional music fairs: its usefulness for strengthening the national music industry and the development of the international market. Panelists: FABIENNE KRAUSE (Classical NEXT !, Germany), OCTAVIO ARBOLAEZ (Circulart, Colombia), ALEXANDER WALTER (WOMEX, Germany) and JORGE GÓMEZ (Cubadisco, Cuba). 
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - FIRST LINE EVENT - SESSION 2 PRO PANEL: Booking of international jazz festivals and concerts: codes and tools. Panelists: PIOTR TURKIEWICK (Jazztopad Festival Wroclaw, Poland / New York, USA), VINCENT ANGLADE (Philharmonia de Paris, France), ALFREDO CAJAX (Sunfest London, Canada) and JOSÉ LUIS CRUZ (Mexico).
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm - FIRST LINE EVENT - SESSION 3 PRO PANEL: Challenges and opportunities for the dissemination and communication of Jazz in the digital era. Panelists: GIORGIO VARAS (Artemedios / WOMAD, Chile), SEBASTIEN VIDAL (TSF Jazz, France), NED SUBLETTE (Author, USA) and JOSÉ DOS SANTOS (The corner of Jazz, Cuba). Nave 4 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - SESSION: FROM THE IDEA TO THE PRAXIS MAGISTRAL CLASS: Performance of the string of wind instruments in recording sessions and live / EDUARDO SANDOVAL, YUNIET LOMBIDA and LÁZARO OVIEDO (Cuba). 

XV INTERNATIONAL JAZZ COLLOQUIUM "Leonardo Acosta in memoriam" President of the Organizing Committee: Victor Rodríguez Direction, academic conception and general coordination: Neris González Bello Coordination assistance, room assistance and rapporteurship: Isandra Ferrales, Claudia Alberti and Evelyn García Production: Marisela de la Lastra Production assistance: Ana Laura Contreras FAC production: Tania Menéndez, Jandro Gácita and Betsy Cortés Technical team: Gustavo González and Rodney García Graphic Design: Chimera Sound:The performance schedule: