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• Arts and Culture
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• 02 / 10 / 2009

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Alexis Vazquez, vice president of the Cuban Music Institute and of the Organizing Committee of the coming event, is one of the more authorized people to answers that question, because among his many initiatives, one of them is to have founded the JoJazz movement.

Music students and young graduates, who later on occupied important places in the Cuban and international panorama, have in the last decade been in that exhibition event of promotion of new values and of launching of new projects.

We shall remember in our conversation when, some years back, were carried out, before the Jazz Plaza, some presentations of the new generations, out of which a group was picked up and was included in the program of the festival.

In one of them I was a witness of the admiration expressions of the Venezuelan orchestra Cimarron, follower of Irakere, when watching an amateur program at the Mella theatre. They said between them, sitting in the row before mine: "if this are the boys, I don’t want to see the adults".

In the last halve century – and specially during the resent decades – very good prepared musicians, both in theory and in classic execution, superb natural jazz players driven by the desire of risk themselves with metric improvisation and new trends to take out their deep musical feelings, have been graduated from the Cuban schools.

The provisional list was given to me by Alexis Vasquez and confirms the perception of the harmonious meeting between generations. The president of the current festival, Chucho Valdes is always surrounded by young super talents due to the space they have earned and keep earning.

There fore, the public will be able to enjoy the pianist Ernan Lopez – Nussa, the bass player Jorge Reyes, the saxophonist Cesar Lopez and the flute player Orlando Valle "Maraca", among many other important musicians, together with the famous and talented Harold López-Nussa, Dayramir González, Alejandro Vargas, Rolando Luna and Aldo López-Gavilán, great exponents of the Cuban piano school.

The trumpet placer Yasek Manzano, student of Wynton Marsalis and admired by Roy Hargrove will also be there, as well as a number of young musicians which will be too long to name. With them it is only possible to carry out high quality festivals.

In the next one, in an environment in which the popular is combined with the specialized, will be moments to dance at the Benny More Hall or twinning with other musical trends, such as the rock at the Maxim theatre.

Four days with over 40 shows in total, is an overwhelming offer made by Jazz Plaza 2009, which will confirm a reality, paying tribute to its founders: history and future of the jazz shine in Cuba.

(Cubarte)