Cuban artistes will be arriving in Malta for a live performance on New Year’s Eve that promises to be a memorable start to the coming year. The event will offer two venues in one, with a separate area simultaneously offering specially-selected samples from around the world to dance to until the early hours of the morning.
East to West Events, the organisers of the first ever World Music Festival in Malta, will be launching a new concept in entertainment for 2006 including live music from the island that has always been a mainspring of sound, expressing Cubans’ intense joy in life and sensuality. The event will be held at Razzett l-Antik, and the main attraction of the evening will be the Cuban singer Barbara Verdecia Figuerdo, accompanied by fellow artistes.
Barbara Verdecia – band leader and singer with fiery temper and fantastic voice – possesses extraordinary musical abilities and excellent stage presence. The daughter of a renowned musical family from Havana, after completing her vocal and guitar studies she was invited to accompany the famous Cuban singer Jorge Luis Piloto as a vocalist.
The artistes involved in the project Barbara y Vai Ven Cubano have devoted themselves to the traditional rhythm and melodies of Cuba, especially the most important ones – son, trova and salsa. The quintet plays its own interpretations of the best classics of Cuban music.
Cuba has traditionally held a huge place in world culture and since the 1930s its music has enjoyed worldwide renown. Many of the dances evolved directly from African religious dances and from the marriage of Spanish guitar and earthy African rhythms came the classic Cuban son, which forms the roots of today’s salsa. In the 1920s, jazz became part of the mix. Cuban son swept the world from the 1930s until the revolution. It spawned new dance music throughout Latin America and created Latin crazes in Europe and the US.
Cuba is beyond question the most important source of music in Latin America. Its root rhythms created the pan-Latin music of salsa, and in their older forms they continue to provide abundant riches recognised again at last in the global success of the Buena Vista Social Club projects.
“We are building on our commitment to offer alternative entertainment in Malta that introduces the music of cultures from all over the world in unique venues that are part of our own culture. World Music Sessions Volume 1, planned for this New Year, will launch the series that will take us through 2006, offering music from all corners of the globe,” said Caroline Muscat, the local partner of an international team forming East to West Events.
More information is available from: www.east2westevents.om, by telephoning 7998-7999 or by email to: [email protected]