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week of 3/5/03 | ||
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Cuban
jazz group Habana Sax plays March 13 in Asheville SMN The Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place presents Habana Sax, a quintet of Cuban jazz musicians on saxophone and percussion with an amazing array of styles at 8 p.m., Thursday March 13. With its vibrant performance of Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, Salsa, Latin jazz and Brazilian rhythms, Habana Sax represents the continuing evolution of the fiercely energetic music of Cuba. Part of the theater’s Mainstage Music Series, Habana Sax’s one show stop in Asheville is part of its third American tour. The five members of Habana Sax are graduates of the prestigious Superior Institute of Art and Culture of Cuba and are all highly esteemed Cuban music professors. Although the group considers itself a jazz ensemble, it notes that like jazz itself, its musical experimentation is rooted in traditional music forms. Habana Sax’s distinct sound is the result of its taking traditional disciplines to the edge in ongoing experimental endeavor. Habana Sax came together in the late ‘80s as a classical saxophone quartet at Havana’s Superior Institute of Art and Culture when cofounder Jorge Luis Almeida, a faculty member there, picked three of his star pupils to form the ensemble. Later additions of a percussionist ( in order to add traditional Cuban music to their repertoire) and then a drummer, prompted the band to turn entirely to modern jazz. According to Almeida, “Our sound is difficult to describe since it doesn’t fit a specific school of music...we do a full show where we dance, we sing, we play our instruments....” Habana Sax’s show has been described as a wild and glorious journey where African chants may suddenly spin into salsa and without warning salsa becomes the opening movement of a traditional symphonic composition that abruptly becomes a richly textured based jazz piece anchored in pounding Latin percussion. Tickets (Regular $25; Seniors/ Students $23; and Children 12 and under $10) and information for the Habana Sax performance are available from the Diana Wortham Theatre box office at 828.257.4530 or online at www.dwtheatre.com. |