Cuba Connections - March 16, 30, April 6, 6-8:30pm
Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley, New Orleans, LA
Cuba Connections is a series of public lectures, teacher workshops and concerts about Cuban music and its connections to New Orleans. Cuba and New Orleans are two undeniable focal points in the history of Latin Jazz. Five Cuban music experts will speak about different aspects of Cuban music and how it relates to New Orleans. Every event will end with a 30-minute teacher session on integration strategies and lesson plan development. A handout of benchmarks and GLEs covered during each session will be made available. This event is co-presented with CubaNOLA. For a further description of the lectures, please visit the LARC website.
The schedule and speakers are as follows:
Wednesday, March 16, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Bill Summers - "Afro-Cuban Yoruba Sacred Music and Dance"Grammy award nominated percussionist of Los Hombres Caliente. Mr. Summers is a New Orleans resident and has traveled extensively to Cuba over the last 30 years to study Afro-Cuban drumming. He will talk about Afro-Cuban sacred music and dance.
Ned Sublette - "Other Afro-Cuban Religions"Author of Cuba and It’s Music: From the first drums to the mambo, an in-depth history of Cuban music, and a professional musician. Mr. Sublette was born in Louisiana and he’s currently a Rockefeller Fellow at Tulane. He will present on the European and African roots of Cuban music as well as Cuban influences on American popular music.
Wednesday, March 30, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Arturo O'Farrill - "Jazz and Latin jazz"The director for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Orchestra, the son of Chico O’Farrill (the father of Afro-Cuban jazz in New York City during the 1950’s and 60’s), and an accomplished jazz musician in his own right. Mr. O’Farrill will be traveling to New Orleans from New York City, and he will look at the complex relationship between jazz and Latin jazz.
Tomás Montoya - "Street Parades: Second Lines and Congas"A resident of Santiago de Cuba, Mr. Montoya will add a distinctly Cuban perspective to the series by looking at “Conga” street parades in Santiago de Cuba and Second Lines in New Orleans. Mr. Montoya’s participation is a unique opportunity since he is one of only a handful of scholars from Cuba to have received visas to enter the United States in the last year. He is in New Orleans to do comparative research on Congas and Second Lines.
Wednesday, April 6, 6:00 -8:30 PM
Ned Sublette - "African and European Roots of Cuban Music" Author of Cuba and It’s Music: From the first drums to the mambo, an in-depth history of Cuban music, and a professional musician. Mr. Sublette was born in Louisiana and he’s currently a Rockefeller Fellow at Tulane. He will present on the European and African roots of Cuban music as well as Cuban influences on American popular music.
Michael Skinkus - "Transmission of musical traditions in Cuba and in New Orleans"A local musician and scholar, Mr. Skinkus performs with many popular local ensembles and holds a Master’s degree from Tulane Latin American Studies. He has traveled to Cuba many times to study Cuban percussion and he will present on the transmission of musical traditions in Cuba and in New Orleans.
posted by Erica Roggeveen @ 5:14 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I attended March 16th's presentation on Afro-Cuban Sacred Music and Dance. I really enjoyed Bill Summers's talk on what he has lost through slavery and racism, and his family ties with both. His portion of the presentation was my favorite because I also enjoyed listening to him talk about how closely tied his family is to New Orleans's history. His demonstration on the drums was amazing. I love that he sees Cuban music as classical. I never thought of it that way, but I understood what he meant as soon as he said it. I was a little less interested in what Michael Skinkus and Ned Sublette had to say because I did not know much about the topics they were discussing. Bill's lecture was more on level with my interests and knowledge base. In my class, I think i can integrate the historical aspects of Bill's talk. It is easy to forget that people you pass on the street could have this amazing tie to history, but Bill reminded me of that. The only improvement I could suggest is that the title of the workshop hinted that there would be an element of dance, and there was none.
Reply to Ashley's post:
Good post overall, but I would love to see more of a summary of each of the talks, and more of an idea of how you could integrate what you learned into a lesson that emphasizes multi-culturalism.
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