We grew fonder and fonder of Transparent Water, the fourhanded album released by Omar Sosa and Seckou Keita in February, blending together Caribbean and West African traditions with musical spices coming from all over the world. So, after having reviewed the album, interviewed Seckou Keita and previewed the ongoing UK...
Tag Archives: Cuba
![Album Review: Ariwo – Ariwo [Manana Records, June 2017]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/a2879113004_16-335x335.jpg)
Ariwo‘s eponymous EP may only be four tracks long, but the length of the tracks gives it more of an album feel and, indeed, one on an opus level. Bridging an extraordinary cultural and global gap, this quartet is one part Iranian and three parts Cuban and explores the rich...
Start with an abajo, then a vacila followed by an enchufla and finally a dile que no…Refresh your Cuban dance moves, because this summer, Havana Musica and the Jazz Café have four nights in store that will bring the Habana Vieja atmosphere to Camden. From the 2nd of June with...
![Album Review: El Septeto Santiaguero – Raiz [Egrem, March 2017]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/septeto-santiaguero-raiz-2017-frontal-335x335.jpg)
Contemporary Cuban music is currently enjoying a high profile with exciting, forward-looking releases from Dayme Arocena and Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura project – twisting and morphing Cuban rhythms and songwriting into new shapes and sounds. With this in mind, El Septeto Santiaguero’s seventh album – Raiz represents the flipside –...
In April 2016, we had a chat and wished good luck to Jenner Del Vecchio for his upcoming new Cuban adventure called MANANA festival. So, it’s a great feeling, little more than a year later, to write once again about one of the most intriguing events of 2016, even if...
The concept behind the AfroCubism collaboration is to celebrate and unite some of Mali and Cuba’s hottest musicians and to explore their shared spirit of Afro-Cuban soul. In the Sixties, socialist Mali politics had close links to those of the new communist Cuban government, creating strong ties between the two...
The legend says that back in 1996, World Circuit Records appointed some of the finest Malian musicians, asking them to visit Cuba and give life to collaboration with similarly impressive local artists. The project didn’t come to life because of visa issues and instead of the Malian-Cuban musical communion, World...
![Daymé Arocena – Cubafonia [Brownswood Recordings, 10th March 2017]](https://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/dayme-arocena-cubafonia-335x335.jpg)
Caribbean societies are often subject to a certain gaze, in search of exotica. The cultural region’s best musicians are those who break with fulfilling the expectations of such a gaze, and produce music rooted in artistry. Daymé Arocena is such a musician, and with Cubafonia, invites us into the realm...
If you are mad about rumba and mambo, come bump and grind your way into the Barbican to be moved by the grooves of son and guaracha, and to sing bolero. Roberto Fonseca (pianist, band leader, and very much part of a younger generation of new Latin jazz musicians) is...
The relation between ¡COMO NO! and Cuban dancers and choreographers started back in 2000. Since then, the London-based Latin American culture promoters have always been keen to present and bring Cuban companies to the UK, constantly presenting original and successful shows. The same will happen late this February… Forget about...
