Paquito D'Rivera's concert Fri. Aug 19 will be preceded by a panel discussion entitled “The Next Cuban Revolution: How New Sounds from Cuba Will Influence Jazz in LA.” The panel will feature Mr. D’Rivera, musician/educator Danilo Lozano, and will be moderated by journalist Brick Wahl. The panel will start at 7:45 PM and the concert will follow directly. Both will take place at Zipper Hall diagonally across from Walt Disney Concert Hall. This concert and panel discussion are made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
A half-century embargo led to the surreal situation of Cuban music evolving only ninety miles away and Americans having no idea it was even there. To nearly all of us, Cuba was ancient fifties cars and the Buena Vista Social Club. But to anyone who managed to hear it, Cuban music and musicians were extraordinarily vital, a living thing. On the rare occasions it came to town the effect was electric. Jazz that went places no one here had dreamed of. Hand drums played with the same level of artistry and sophistication as the hippest jazz saxophone. Havana is a hothouse of state funded jazz education and streets full of wild improvisation. And now, with the Cold War barriers torn down at last, all that music is set to explode across the United States. Wherever there is Latin jazz played, we can expect new sounds. New challenges. New dance steps. We've collected a panel of musicians and thinkers to ask them about this. Will the music of Cuba revolutionize Afro-Cuban jazz in Los Angeles?