HAVANA, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Grammy-winning U.S. jazz saxophonist-composer Ted Nash traveled to Cuba this week to carry out with fellow musicians from the Caribbean island nation, a part of a week-long celebration of jazz within the Cuban capital of Havana.
Nash – one of many United States´ best-known modern jazz performers, will lead a undertaking known as Jazz X. He and several other Cuban musicians will compose new works impressed by visible artwork in Cuba´s Nationwide Museum of Tremendous Arts, then current them collectively to the general public in a number of periods.
Effectively-known Cuban musicians Alejandro Falcón, Arnulfo Guerra y Ruy López Nussa will carry out alongside Nash.
The undertaking, Nash mentioned, brings collectively musicians from the 2 nations, and artwork of various varieties, in a fusion of creativity throughout cultures and mediums.
“For me, there isn’t any higher time to speak about collaboration than the current,” Nash mentioned.
[1/5] Grammy-winning U.S. jazz saxophonist-composer Ted Nash checks a saxophone on the Nationwide Museum of Tremendous Arts in Havana, Cuba, January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
Nash mentioned the undertaking isn’t political, however any collaboration between residents of the US and Cuba, neighbors at odds since Fidel Castro´s 1959 revolution, raises eyebrows.
The U.S. financial embargo on Cuba has for many years restricted most journey and official collaboration between the 2 nations.
Music has lengthy defied the percentages, forming a cultural bridge between the nations no matter political relations. Afro-Cuban rhythms just like the habanera have fed into Afro-American music as early because the nineteenth century.
Havana’s jazz pageant has lengthy featured U.S. musicians and attracted U.S. guests beneath exceptions to the journey embargo for instructional visits.
Nash mentioned he hopes his go to continues that custom and evokes contemporary concepts and music, but additionally, additional opening between the 2 nations.
“If this undertaking, can train the world, that folks need to be collectively… and that the partitions and fences we put between us, don’t have anything to do with music and folks…that´s unbelievable,” he instructed Reuters.
Reporting by Anett Rios and Alexander Frometa, enhancing by Dave Sherwood and David Gregorio
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