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The 1940's also saw the emergence of artists and bands such as The Brothers Lebatard and the Palau Brothers, as well as Casino de la Playa, a famed band that included not only the talented vocals of Orlando Guerra, but the piano stylings of The King of the Mambo himself, Damaso Perez Prado.
By the 1950's, Las Vegas had taken over the scene in the United States, and the US mafia in Havana was working hard to recreate this. Show business emerged as a primary industry, and hotels and nightclubs like The Tropicana were ready to put jazz at the forefront of their entertainment offerings.
Huge names such as Cab Calloway, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, and Sarah Vaughan began coming to Cuba regularly, and Armando Romeu helped ensure that The Tropicana was the center of it all. Sunday jazz sessions were big business in Havana at the time, and local artists such as Milt Jackson and Tata Palau shared time at The Tropicana with American artists, exchanging styles, comparing notes, and creating a shared experience.
It was here, at the end of the 1950's, that El Cubano, the first Cuban jazz LP was recorded with the stylings of Kiki Hernandes, Guillermo Barreto, Bebo Valdes, and other famed Cuban artists of the era.
By the end of the decade, the Cuban Revolution had seen its success and the landscape of Cuban music had been altered yet again. Rhythms such as the pachanga and the mozambique enjoyed a brief popularity, and styles such as bossa nova and rock made their way to Cuba.
These new genres grew rapidly in popularity throughout the island, pushing jazz into the background and relegating the genre back to smaller concerts and venue. The 1960's nearly saw the disappearance of big jazz bands in Cuba. Artists such as Pucho Escalante and Frank Emilio Felipe worked hard to keep the genre alive, and even the great Armando Romeu left the Tropicana.
Jazz festivals were incredibly popular around the world at the time, with many of Cuba's best remaining jazz artists performing around the world. In 1963, the Payret Movie Theatre played host to the first Havana Jazz Festival, which hosted artists such as Leonardo Timor, Samuell Tellez, and Ormara Portuondo.
By the end of the decade, a young artist by the name of Chucho Valdes was becoming a wildly popular name in Cuban Jazz. He was among the many artists making the rounds at international jazz festivals, and the Chucho Valdes Quintet was quite popular.
In 1973, Valdes formed the Grammy winning group Irakere, which earned nearly instant fame by garnering praise from musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Earl Hines. Irakere went on tour in 1974, playing numerous US jazz festivals, and the band spent the majority of the 1970's at the very top of the jazz scene.
1979 saw the first Jazz Plaza, or International Jazz Festival of Havana, which at the time came in the form of a string of concerts arranged by Bobby Carcases. The festival quickly became a major event, with international artists such as Ronnie Scott and Dizzy Gillespie playing alongside Cuban legends such as Tata Guines and Armando Romeu as regulars at the event for many years.
Jazz legend Chucho Valdes has been another long-time festival regular and now serves as the event organizer. Jazz Plaza has helped bring fame to many Cuban musicians while also serving as a gathering place for the best international artists. Numerous Cuban artists who have played the festival have gone on to be nominated for and win Grammy awards in the Latin Jazz category, with Chucho Valdes remaining strong as the most globally famed artist of them all.
Luis De Aguiar is a serving director of Authentic Cuba Travel, a Toronto- based Travel Company that specializes in educational, cultural and ecological tours to Cuba. You can find over 30 different fully escorted Cuba tours a year with the largest selection of themes ranging from jazz tours to bird watching to legal research trips for US professionals. To learn more about Authentic Cuba, contact the company today by visiting their website or by calling 1-877-280-2054.
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