The 38th edition of the International Jazz Plaza Festival 2023 kicks off from this Sunday until January 29 with more than 100 concerts in nearly 20 stages, squares and parks in this capital and Santiago de Cuba.

Havana, January 22 (RHC)-- The 38th edition of the International Jazz Plaza Festival 2023 kicks off from this Sunday until January 29 with more than 100 concerts in nearly 20 stages, squares and parks in this capital and Santiago de Cuba.

At a recent press conference, the president of its organizing committee, Victor Rodriguez, assured that the biggest jazz festival in Cuba will be a success, despite the economic difficulties the country is going through.

The also director of the National Center of Popular Music highlighted the participation until January 29 of important national and foreign musicians, who are making a great effort to travel to the Caribbean island.

In addition to Cuban artists are expected from Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Spain, France, Congo, Mexico, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Peru, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States, with the largest representation.

Cuban Deputy Minister of Culture Fernando Jacomino highlighted the presence of international musicians and Cubans living in other countries, who will travel to the island despite the pressures against them.

In that sense, he stressed that this is the festival of Cuban jazz musicians wherever they live and highlighted the joint effort of national institutions to make a music festival of the highest quality.

Composer Rodolfo Vaillant, in charge of the Festival's activities in the city of Santiago de Cuba, in eastern Cuba, said that in addition to the usual stages, the presentations in that city will be held in the Martí and Moncada communities, Plaza Martes and Boulevard Parque Dolores.

In this capital city, the concerts will be held at the National, Marti, America and Lazaro Peña theaters, the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center, the Cuba Pavilion, the Casa de la Cultura de Plaza, the Cuban Art Factory and the Salón Rosado de la Tropical.

National Music Award (2012) winner Bobby Carcassés, founder of Jazz Plaza, warned that the event will include more venues than on other occasions and invited the Cuban public not to miss the performances of renowned Cuban and foreign instrumentalists.

Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, artistic director of the Festival, said that his dream is to achieve in the future that the jazz festival can be transferred to other provinces of the Antillean nation where this musical genre has many followers.

The image of the event is the work Baseball Player, by the notable Cuban plastic artist Arturo Montoto, who imbued his creative seal that advocates the conjunction of music and baseball, two of the symbols of the national culture.

During the meeting, tributes will be paid to the rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas for its 70th anniversary, trumpeter Bobby Carcassés, who is 85 years old, composer Martha Valdés, percussionist Chano Pozo and pianist Hernán López Nusa, among others.

The 18th Leonardo Acosta in Memoriam International Colloquium will recall the imprint of the outstanding Cuban musicologist on the 90th anniversary of his birth and will also offer an extensive academic program of lectures, master classes and panels at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano.