The 38th edition of International Jazz Plaza Festival 2023 culminated this Sunday after more than 100 concerts in nearly 20 stages, squares and parks in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, according to the island’s media outlets.
The Festival closed with the show La Gran Diversión, by the pianist and artistic director of the event, Roberto Fonseca. The show took place in the Avellaneda hall of the National Theater, according to a report from Latin Press (PL).
Fonseca was accompanied by Emir Santa Cruz (tenor sax), Jorge Sergio (alto sax), Ruly Herrera (drums), Adel González (conga), Yandy Martínez (bass) and Andrés Coayo (percussion).
“It is a project with which I am very happy, because it contains very interesting things, especially in the staging. I always advocate that concerts are not just music. I want to bring to the spectators a new performance, which has never been done in Cuba”, the artist indicated to the festival newspaper.
Creators from Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Spain, France, Congo, Mexico, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Peru, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States participated in this edition of Jazz Plaza.
For one of the participants, the Cuban pianist Rodrigo García, the Jazz Plaza has been a luxury and an honor.
“Sharing the stage with so many musicians is learning. This environment that we are breathing in recent times is spectacular for Cuban music and the continuity of the genre as an essential part of our culture,” she stated.
Meanwhile, for the Cuban percussionist Ruly Herrera, the event is also a school, “because each of the shows is valuable, so we must be more ambitious regarding where we want to take it.”
Axel Tosca and Xiomara Laugart among the guests on the last day of Jazz Plaza 2023
On Sunday, the presentation of the interpreter Xiomara Laugart with her son Axel, at the Martí Theater, stood out.
Jazz Plaza honored Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, the trumpeter Bobby Carcassés, the composer Martha Valdés, the pianist Hernán López Nusa and the memory of the great percussionist Chano Pozo.
