• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 03 / 02 / 2011

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March 2 2011 at 09:15am. By Don Albert. IOL Tonight Pic 02 Mar 11 Harmonica -I have never talked to any musician who was so spiritually excited about coming to South Africa as Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca.

“When I get there I am going to kiss the land,” he said to me in his slightly broken English.

Fonseca is a brilliant and exciting musician. His combination of Cuban music and jazz is a perfect example of Afro-Cuban jazz.

He’s a schooled musician who switched from drums to piano at the age of eight and at 14 was experimenting with fusing the music of Cuba and North America. He also picked up a Master’s degree in composition along the way. His compositions are inspired by family, musicians, religion or countries. Having listened to his CDs and the latest DVD Live in Marciac, his sincerity shines through.

“We are going to play music from our two albums Zamazu and Akonan. It is a very important concert for us because we are going to play in South Africa. We are going to play in Mother Earth. For me, it is very spiritual and I’m very excited about playing in South Africa. It’s really important to my career and my life. My Afro-Cuban roots are really connected to Africa.”

What gave him the idea of taking Cuban music and mixing it with jazz?

“I grew up in a very musical family and, as a child, my family took me to listen to a lot of jazz and classical music. I grew up with a mix of different musical styles.”

Although he listens to Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and John Coltrane, I mention he has developed his own musical voice on the piano. “I take all my knowledge of classical, jazz and Afro-Cuban also middle eastern and maybe Bulgarian music and I try to put it all together in my own way, without losing my Cuban flavour. I play a very percussive style. I try to play the piano as if it was a drum.

“I want to say thank you to the South African people for letting me play there. It will be the most important concert I will play in my life and I will try to make it the best concert of my life, because Africa and South Africa deserves that.”

He is bringing his regular band with him which has Javier Zalba playing saxophones, flute and clarinet; Omar González double bass; Ramsés Rodriguez drums and Joel Hierrezuelo percussion.

“I’m dying to get there. We are going to bring a little piece of Cuba to South Africa, and we are really, really happy to be going to play there.” His CDs and DVD are available here.

Source: www.iol.co.za/tonight/what-s-on/gauteng/