EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 10 January 2024 — The 39th edition of the Plaza de Cuba International Jazz Festival, which will be held from January 21 to 28, will receive hundreds of international artists, including 92 from the United States, its organizers reported on Tuesday.
With the slogan “Pa’que flujazz,” the most important event of the genre in the country – in which more than 60 groups will participate – will be dedicated this year to the 50 year artistic career of the Cuban Joaquín Betancourt.
Likewise, the festival will be held, as usual, both in Havana, with 184 performances, and in Santiago de Cuba, with 74.
With the slogan “Pa’que flujazz,” the most important event of the genre in the country will be dedicated this year to the 50 year artistic career of the Cuban Joaquín Betancourt
Among the most important international figures who will participate is the American saxophonist and composer Ted Nash; the Mexican arranger Arturo O’Farrill and the American pianist Aaron Goldberg.
“It has grown so much (the Jazz Plaza), that we can say that it is a festival larger than ourselves, and the number of prominent musicians from different countries gives a measure of how, in 2024, Cuba continues to be a center for jazz,” Bobby Carcassés, first president of the Festival, told EFE.
One of this edition’s novelties will be the union of dance and jazz, with two shows. One will feature both Ted Nash and the Cuban collectives Acosta Danza and Malpaso, while at the closing of the Festival, the Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca will perform together with the National Ballet of Cuba, featuring the director and first dancer, Viengsay Valdés, and the Muñequitos de Matanzas, exponents of the rumba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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