Yosvany Terry April 2008

The CubaNOLA Arts Collective, Junebug Productions and the Backbeat Series present

Afro-Cuban Jazz flyerYosvany Terry

with Ye-dé-gbé and the Afro-Cuban Legacy


The CubaNOLA Arts Collective, Junebug Productions and the Backbeat Series co-presented renowned Cuban jazz saxophonist Yosvany Terry in concert with Ye-dé-gbé & the Afro-Cuban Legacy project on April 24 at A Studio at Colton. Doors opened at 9pm with Charmaine Neville opening for Ye-dé-gbé & the Afro-Cuban Legacy project.

The CubaNOLA Arts Collective, Junebug Productions and Monique Moss also presented four days of Afro-Cuban dance and percussion classes with the group at A Studio at Colton.

Yosvany TerryYosvany Terry is one of the most exciting Cuban jazz musicians of our time. His most recent accomplishment is the creation of the Ye-dé-gbé & the Afro-Cuban Legacy project in which he traces the roots of the Arará music traditions from Dahomey, West Africa to Cuba. Yosvany went to Cuba to study with Mario Rodríguez Pedroso who is one of the living masters of Arará drumming in order to create this project. The band includes Yosvany on saxophone and chekeré, Yunior Terry on bass, Zaccai Curtis on piano, Justin Brown on trap drums, 3 percussionists – Pedro Martínez, Sandy Pérez, and Román Díaz, and dancer, Félix "Pupy" Insua.

Born in Cuba, Yosvany received his earliest musical training from his father, Eladio "Don Pancho" Terry, Cuba's leading chekeré player and the founder/director of "Orquesta Maravillas de Florida," one of Cuba's most important Charanga orchestras. Yosvany Terry is a classically trained musician and has performed with a variety of legendary musicians in Cuba. In the 1990's he formed the influential Cuban group, Columna B, which represented the new voice of young Cuban jazz players and toured throughout the US and Europe. In 1999 Yosvany moved to New York City and was immediately recognized as a "spectacular talent" in the Jazz scene, playing with Roy Hargrove, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Douglass, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and bassist Avishai Cohen.

Yosvany TerryYosvany has special connections to New Orleans since he has performed in the city many times with the renowned Cuban dance group, Cubanismo. He even spent a month in New Orleans as the principal arranger for Cubanismo’s collaborative album with the Yockamo All-Stars, "Mardi Gras Mambo" which was recorded in New Orleans in 1999.

 

 


DANCE WORKSHOP

Master Afro-Cuban folkloric dancer, Félix "Pupy" Insua, lead four days of dance classes with the group's percussionists, Pedro Martínez, Sandy Pérez, and Román Díaz.

The folkloric classes focused on Arará traditions with some time also spent on Yoruba and Rumba traditions. Percussion classes were also available by request during these same class times.

 

Afro-Cuban Jazz dance images