A Window to Cuba - Discover Afro-Cuban Jazz
Finally, Oh! Jazz has started live streaming from Cuba!
The venue chosen was the "Fábrica de Arte Cubano" in Havana. Once a cooking oil factory, this place has been a representative music and art spot in Cuba since 2010.
Around 2008, a group of Cuban artists and musicians began looking for a place to exhibit various forms of art and acquired the closed factory, which opened in February 2014 and has since become a gathering place for local and international musicians and music fans.
Oh! Jazz Cuba was kicked off with a performance by the New York/Cuba Collective. Led by internationally acclaimed Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Dayramir González, the group is notable for its distinctive musicality that highlights the spirit of the two cities, New York and Havana. In addition, the band's main objective is to provide educational support to young students in Havana.
In addition to Dayramir, the collective includes James Robbins (b), Tiago Michelin (ds), Takafumi Nikaido (per), Chad Lefkowitz-Brown (sax), and Aaron Goldberg (p/key), a group of New York's finest. They not only perform gigs in Cuba but also give public performances at high schools in Havana and hold master classes at the National School of Arts (ENA) and the Guillermo Tomas Music School (Guillermo Tomas). They offer a wide variety of classes in harmony, composition, improvisation techniques, sound design, business, and etiquette and continue to interact with aspiring professional students.
This collective features Japanese percussionist Takafumi Nikaido, a.k.a. TAKA. Joining local Dayramir, high-level soloist Chad, and veteran Aaron, TAKA is creating the core rhythms of Afro-Cuban jazz, and you can see him at the Oh! Jazz.
He is a 30-year-old up-and-coming percussionist from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. After graduating from high school, he entered Berklee College of Music as a scholarship student and won the Best Foreigner Award at the FIESTA DEL TAMBOR 2014 competition held in Cuba in 2014. Since then, he has studied with many musicians in Cuba, and after moving to New York in 2020, he has been active internationally as a percussionist and actor in the off-Broadway musical " THE VISITOR".
TAKA has also participated in the work of pianist Mao Sone and the leader band of Mei Inoue, which includes trumpeter Shinpei Ruike, all of whom are also lined up on Oh! Jazz. He has provided rhythmic support to these significant artists, actively influencing the Japanese jazz scene. In their generation at Berklee College of Music, there seems to be a larger presence of musicians with Latin roots compared to the past, and in many cases, students from Japan have naturally developed a Latin jazz style through daily communication.
The New York/Cuba Collective's live performance is a must-see, as you can feel the Latin vibes spreading around the world. The positive vibes and excitement of the audience that Daylamir seizes, as well as the top-class techniques of New York, are generously showcased on the best stage in front of your eyes. With the upcoming Cuban lineup, you will undoubtedly witness firsthand the global connection through jazz.
By Hiroko Otsuka