This year, southern New England once again experienced a series of intimate encounters with some of the most accomplished Afro-Cuban musicians in the United States. Lazaro Galarraga is co-musical director for the Maestros del Son and PAWS Afro-Cuban Folklore Ensemble in Los Angeles. Roman Diaz is a noted scholar of Cuban religious and folkloric music as well as a composer and performer of contemporary Afro-Cuban music and Jazz. He has performed and recorded with Cuban diva Mercedíta Valdes, Canadian Jane Bunnett, Juan Carlos Formell and Paquito D’Rivera, as well as folkloric artist Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, and Pianist Danílo Pérez, and many others during his 21 years living in New York City.
Originally from Santiago de Cuba, Danys "La Mora" Pérez Prades is an internationally renowned master of Afro-Cuban folkloric dance. She has taught at The Ailey Extension program and at Cumbe African & Diaspora Dance & Drum, Humboldt University in California, Brown University, Cornell University and other prestigious institutions. She also founded Oyu Oro, a New York City-based Afro-Cuban dance company. ‘Sandy’ Pérez, from the city of Matanzas, Cuba, descends from the Villamils, a well-known spiritual and musical family. Sworn to the drum as a youth, at 16 he commenced a professional career with the legendary group Afro Cuba de Matanzas, and has since performed and toured with Lázaro Ros, Steve Coleman, Yosvany Terry, Miguel Angá, Dafnis Prieto, Olodum, Munequitos de Matanzas, Pedrito Martinez, Román Díaz, and others. He currently resides in Gloucester, Mass.
These artists formed the core of the music and dance ensemble that performed this year in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Afropop Worldwide caught their performance at the Media Center in Holyoke. This is the chamber music of Afro-Caribbean tradition, featuring drumming as subtle and complex as anyone can imagine, vocals that crackle with precision and soar with spiritual passion and riveting dance spectacle. The songs and dancers evoked orishas, deities of Afro-Cuban religion associated with colors, elements and realms of human emotion and endeavor. The dance performances were enhanced by images of orisha paintings contributed by event organizer Ivor Miller, a cultural historian specializing in the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas, and a longtime friend of and contributor to Afropop Worldwide.
The events were MC'd by Miller and Afro-Cuban educator and activist Gloria Caballero Roca of Bard Micro College.
Last June (2023), these artists performed on the shores of the Connecticut River. You can read about that event and see a video of their performance here.
Here are images shot by Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow at the Holyoke event.
