Straight from Havana, Roberto Carcassés -- pianist, composer, and director of the Cuban collective Interactivo -- will give a rare concert performance in Miami on July 17. The show comes hot on the heels of his new album, Matizar, which he recorded in his home studio in Havana but plans to pay to have manufactured in South Florida.
Carcassés, 35, is considered one of the most cutting-edge artists currently residing on the island and is at the forefront of a new generation of innovative musicians and singer/songwriters who are defining a new era in Cuban music, one which increasingly melds the country's homegrown styles with outside influences. The show will be a window into Havana's contemporary music scene. Since 2001 visa restrictions put in place after 9/11 have made it virtually impossible for Cuban musicians to perform stateside, cutting off a steady stream that in the 1990s saw many Cuban artists tour the U.S. regularly as part of the Clinton administration's people-to-people initiative that aimed to close the cultural divide between the two nations.
Carcassés, who's in Miami on a family visa to visit his ex-wife and son, is taking advantage of the trip to introduce audiences to Havana's new sound. However he will not receive any payment for the concert since U.S. law prohibits Cuban musicians from being paid anything except a small living stipend. The show, which will take place at the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana, is being put on by promoter Ever Chavez, of the nonprofit group Fundarte. For more information visit http://www.fundarte.us/.
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