We owe a big vote of thanks to Ian Bowden for persuading the award-winning Cuban musician Roberto Fonseca, to perform at St Mary’s Church in Rye’s own Jazz Festival this summer. Local resident Sarah Saunders, who has travelled to Cuba regularly for over 20 years, witnessed Roberto’s spellbinding performances in many different venues in Cuba.
“What an amazing dream to have Roberto come to pay in Rye,” she thought and contacted Ian Bowden 5 years ago to try to make it happen. With persistence they worked together to made it happen! Like so many countries Cuba has struggled hard during the pandemic and with additional economic pressures there it is particularly special to have been able to have Roberto representing the music of his country at this International Jazz Festival.
Roberto Fonseca grew up in Havana within a close musical family: his father a drummer, his mother a singer and dancer and two half-brothers, a drummer and a pianist. After classical music training in Havana, Roberto wasn’t sure initially which way his music would go but he was determined from an early age it would be totally original. Roberto as a child in Cuba could pick up FM radio signals from the US coast, just 90 miles away, to hear American Jazz.
By the age of 8 he had switched from drums to piano and by 14 he was combining American Jazz with Cuban rhythms to perform at Havana’s Jazz Plaza Festival when he was only 15. With deep roots in Afro-Caribbean music, his life-long passion has been to respect a wide range of influencers but always to invent totally new work with his collaborators. These open-minded musicians are inspired by a wide range of musical forms from traditional Cuban son montuno and danzonete, rap, funk, soul, reggaeton (a music style from Puerto Rico), electronic music, rumba or hambone, Latin jazz and significantly, the Buena Vista Social Club, who made a huge impact on Roberto both personally and musically.
Now The Jazz festival is over for another year, if you are like me, you crave more Fonseca magic. We can find his albums on the web and the World Music Foundation has made an excellent podcast in which Roberto describes his life and his music including the origins of specific tracks… “all the sounds and vibes that make me who I am” in his own words. Do hear it on wmfpodcast.org/14 !
Image Credits: Susan Benn , Kt Bruce .