USA: A DAZZLING ARRAY OF CUBA-BASED MUSICIANS PLAN AN UNPRECEDENTED CONCERT IN MIAMI

Record ID: 387699

  • Title: USA: A DAZZLING ARRAY OF CUBA-BASED MUSICIANS PLAN AN UNPRECEDENTED CONCERT IN MIAMI
  • Date: 26th August 1998
  • Summary: DANCERS PUTTING ON SHOW FOR VISITORS TO EXPOSITION. PEOPLE LISTENING TO MUSIC CD'S LA CHARANGA RUBALCABA CUBAN BAND PERFORMING ON STAGE. . PEOPLE DANCING IN THE AISLES CUBAN SINGER AND GUITARIST COMPAY SEGUNDO ON STAGE WITH SINGER OMARA PORTUONDO. CUBAN PIANIST CHUCHO VALDEZ PERFORMING ON STAGE. PORTUONDO SINGING. MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE DANCING. CHUCHO'S BAND, IRA
  • Embargoed: 10th September 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAAY859N3KKFQQXF5CYA8LG6S9G
  • Story Text: A dazzling array of Cuba-based musicians overcame red tape, anti-Communist protests and a bomb threat to plan an unprecedented concert in Miami, the center of exile opposition to President Fidel Castro.
    Pianists Chucho Valdes and Guillermo Rubalcaba, with their bands Irakere and La Charanga Rubalcaba, took the stage at an international music industry fair on Wednesday (August 26) and thrilled an audience of several hundred at Miami Beach's convention centre.
    They were joined by singer Omara Portuondo and 90-year-old singer and guitarist Compay Segundo in the highest-profile concert here by Cuba-based musicians in years.
    Hardline exiles among south Florida's 800,000-strong Cuban community have traditionally opposed concerts in Miami by musicians based in Cuba, saying they prop up Castro's regime with dollars earned abroad.
    Although open only to fair participants and the press rather than the general public, the concert was a test of exiles' reaction to a call by Pope John Paul, during a historic visit to Havana in January, for reconciliation among all Cubans.
    The concert had been planned for Tuesday but only Compay Segundo performed that day after a visa snarl-up left the others stuck in Havana until barely two hours before they were due to take the stage.
    His Tuesday performance of mesmeric "son Cubanos" numbers was interrupted for about 30 minutes by an anonymous bomb threat which led police to evacuate the auditorium.No bomb was found.The caller made no political statement, police said.
    "Music is universal, Cuban music is one music, it belongs to Cubans," Valdes said after the concert."It is the most valuable part of those who live in Cuba, in Japan, in Australia or on the moon, it is our roots, our identity and that must be respected."
    He told Reuters he hoped Cuba-based musicians would be to perform in Miami without difficulty "soon, very soon."
    U.S.officials said in Havana that the hold-up until late Tuesday in getting U.S.visas for the musicians was procedural--they had applied for the wrong kind of document--not political.
    The annual MIDEM Latin and Caribbean Music Market was being held for the second year in a row in Miami.
    Last year the fair featured no Cuba-based musicians because of local political pressure.The organization threatened not to return this year unless Cuban musicians from the island were allowed to perform.
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