Jazz Plaza Festival
The Cuban group Síntesis gave a concert at Havana’s Bertolt Brecht Theatre, in the framework of the 37th Jazz Plaza International Festival.
Founded in 1974, the group led by musician Carlos Alfonso delighted their audience with hits from their vast repertoire of rich fusions of ancestral, traditional African, Cuban and Caribbean rhythms with contemporary sounds, jazz, rock and pop.
Guest artists included saxophonist Michel Herrera, bassist Gastón Joya and Eme Alfonso.
Congolese pianist, composer and singer Ray Lema gave a concert at Havana’s Teatro Nacional de Cuba, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, under the conduction of Brazilian maestro Joao Mauricio Galindo.
He performed emblematic pieces from his vast musical production, including Sahara, Sao Tome, Congo Rapsody and Transcendance, the title track of his album from 2018.
Experts agree that the symphonic arrangements of Ray Lema’s tunes reveal him as a versatile musician, true to his African roots and open to experimentation with new sounds, styles and rhythms.
The concert program included also pieces by renowned Brazilian musicians. The concert concluded with the Congolese musician and the National Symphony Orchestra, performing a jazz version of a danzon tune by Cuban musician Alejandro García Caturla.
In the framework of the 37th Jazz Plaza Festival, the Congolese musician Ray Lema will offer a master class, and on Wednesday, he will perform another concert, accompanied by French pianist Laurent de Wilde and the National Symphony Orchestra, this time under the conduction of Cuban maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa.
