Global Cuba Fest: 2020

Brenda Navarrete
Brenda Navarrete is one of Cuba’s most celebrated rising stars, fusing ancestral Afro-Cuban heritage with contemporary jazz influences. A singer and percussionist, Navarrete plays the batá, a set of three double-headed drums that are traditionally used in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies. Her skill breaks a santería taboo, which holds that women are forbidden to even touch the batá. She has collaborated with and played alongside Cuba’s musical elite, including Alain Perez, Rodney Barreto and Roberto Carcasses, the founder of Cuban all-star funk/jazz band Interactivo, which is responsible for producing a handful of other Cuban stars including Telmary and Cimafunk. She also plays with Afro-Cuban folkloric percussion troupe, Obiní Bata.

Yelsy Heredia & The Changui Project
The Cuban musician Yelsy Heredia, living and working in Madrid since the late ’90s, toured with Cigala for 13 years. He made his name accompanying beloved icons like Bebo Valdés, Chucho Valdés, Changuito, Ernan Lopez Nussa, and Dayme Arocena. Even while touring with these giants, Heredia harbored a passion for changüí, the distinctive and less-known rhythm of his native Guantanamo, in eastern Cuba. Changüí is the traditional rhythm of the sugar cane farms; it was the first contemporary music to combine Spanish canción and guitar with African rhythms and percussion. It is considered a predecessor of son montuno, which makes it the grandfather of modern salsa. Heredia’s 2019 release of changüí tunes, Lo Nuestro, was nominated for a Latin Grammy. He will bring his music to the Bandshell for this special concert, accompanied by a band of other eight top Cuban musicians.

Sol & The Tribu
Ambassadors of The New Miami Sound, Sol and The Tribu rock out with their retro-futuristic mix of Miami-Licious swagger and Caribbean funk rhythms. They’ll get you off your feet, dancing your way into a “Conga Inferno,” moving to the positive vibrations.

Jorge Luis Pacheco
Jorge Luis Pacheco is one of the leading pianists of the new generation of jazz in Cuba. He won the “Audience Award” and the “Second Jury Award “at the International Jazz Piano Competition Montreux Switzerland in July 2014. In 2017 Pacheco also won the best solo and performance award in the jazz contest “Made in New York” in New York City whit one of his on compositions. He is a virtuoso pianist, composer, arranger, percussionist and singer.

Julio Montalvo
Julio Montalvo is one of the leading trombonists from the island of Cuba. Songwriter, producer, arranger and session musician, he also appears as a solo artist, directing his own project since 1998, in which he blends Afro-Cuban rhythms with elements of modern Jazz to achieve an ingenious style – New Latin Jazz.

Alain Perez
Alain Perez is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer and composer. He is known as one of the most versatile artists in the Cuban contemporary scene. In his talk, Alain has worked with Celia Cruz, Paco de Lucía, Enrique Morente, Diego El Cigala, Los Van Van and Issac Delgado. In 2015, he was nominated for the Grammy Latino Awards by the album El alma del Son: Tributo a Matamoros.Alain Perez was nominated to the Latin Grammy Awards 2017, for his album ADN, recorded with distinguished musicians such as Rubén Blades among others.