If you know anything about me, you know I love music. My trips always feature lots of music (unless someone steers me hard in another direction). A lot of my friends are musicians. And I sing a bit myself, at least enough to play around. Actually, that’s a big way I connect with the musicians I meet. We start chatting, they realize I know some…
Read More
Coming up next January, visit Cuba for the annual Jazz Plaza festival! That’s Havana’s biggest jazz event of the year. Last year’s festival was hosted by Chucho Valdés and featured such luminaries as Omara Portuondo, Christian McBride, and Terence Blanchard. (video below!)
Read More
So last month I took a group of four to the Bay of Matanzas. We were hosted by a band I’m friendly with and their families, who threw us a big pig roast! It was their idea, and I gave them free rein. That’s a little risky, just because none of us knew exactly how it would go – but the risk paid off. One…
Read More
Dayron is a friend of mine from the province of Matanzas, Cuba. He’s a musician and used to belong to Quinteto Cubanacan before joining a new band closer to home. In fact, in the first video at that link, Dayron’s the one playing guitar. Nice guy. (Scroll to the bottom for a video of him playing and singing.) Dayron invited me to visit, as he…
Read More
So I’ve mentioned that I tend to connect with musicians in Cuba – often by singing with them. One of my favorite groups is the Cubanacan Quintet, a group of guys from rural Cuba. If you ever travel with me through central Cuba, there’s a good chance you’ll see them… because I pull strings to cross paths with them whenever I can. I first took…
Read More
I can sing. I’m not a rock star – but I’m decent enough to play around. I’ve made friends with a number of GGG musicians in Cuba. Once I let on that I know some Cuban songs, we get to singing, and it’s all downhill from there! Whenever they see me coming, they know I’ll join them for a song or two. This helps make…
Read More
I just caught part of the Havana production of Rent. I arrived late and left early – the life of a busy tour operator! – but I did catch a lot of it. And I was delighted to catch 525,600 minutos – my favorite song from the show. I used my phone to record the audio. Here it is, in all its bootleg glory: I…
Read MoreThese are a few of my favorite… songs.
Read More
Guadalajara celebrates the mariachi tradition, plus food, rodeos, and more…
Read More
I sang to a tour member in honor of her birthday. Someone got a video.
Read More