I had a chance to see Roberto Fonseca play at the 2015 Fes Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco, in a duo collaboration with Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. In his thrilling, visceral performance, the Havana-born musician, composer, and bandleader embodied the multifarious musicality of Cuba’s best jazz pianists. Blessed with access to the island’s […]
Tag: Havana
Posted inMusic
Okan craft jazzy, heady grooves informed by Afro-Cuban culture and a world of sound
Toronto group Okan make heady, jazzy, superbly crafted music driven by two virtuosos born in Cuba’s cultural capitals: violinist Elizabeth Rodriguez hails from Havana, and percussionist Magdelys Savigne is from Santiago. Rodriguez was a concertmaster for Havana’s Youth Orchestra, and Savigne is trained in orchestral percussion, but since moving to Toronto about five years ago […]
Posted inBlogs
Fallen Gods
Ernesto Daranas’s drama “Fallen Gods” sets a Havana turf war against the legend of pimp Alberto Yarini Ponce de Leon, who murder led to France’s ouster from Cuba. It screens Tuesday 2/22 in the Latino Cultural Center’s Reel Film Club series.
Posted inBlogs
Traces of the Trade
Katrina Browne uncovers the roots and the psychic consequences of her ancestors’ enormous slave trading empire in the documentary “Traces of the Trade: A Story of the Deep North,” in four free screenings in Chicago and the west suburbs starting Thursday.
Posted inBlogs
Celia the Queen
“Celia the Queen,” a 2008 documentary about salsa superstar Celia Cruz, screens tonight as part of Latino Fashion Week.
Posted inBlogs
Occasional Pieces at the Nightingale
British filmmaker Stephen Connolly investigates spaces and their meanings in “Occasional Pieces,” a selection of his short works screening Saturday 11/7 at the Nightingale.
Posted inBlogs
Ten new reviews
Ten new restaurants, among them Old Town Social, Gemini Bistro, Orvieto, Folklore, Ch’ava Cafe, and Knew.
Posted inFood & Drink
New Too
New reviews of recently opened restaurants including Blue Ocean, Ch’ava Cafe, Dolce, Folklore, Havana, Knew, and La Mediteranee
Posted inFilm
A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba
For viewers (and listeners) who feel that the great Dizzy Gillespie didn’t receive his due in Bird, this conventionally made but charismatic and enjoyable documentary by John Holland about the jazz trumpeter’s concert in Cuba, occasioned by the fifth International Jazz Festival of Havana, goes a long way toward making up the difference. Gillespie’s personality […]