Havana Drum Festival Opens Tuesday

HAVANA TIMES.- The 2008 Guillermo Barreto in Memoria Drum Festival gets underway in Havana on Tuesday, October 21, taking place at several theaters and cultural venues in the capital through Saturday.

The festival is one of the island’s premier music events organized by Klimax drummer and bandleader, Giraldo Piloto. The opening concert takes place at the Amadeo Roldan Theater, dedicated to the late Cuban percussionist Aristides Soto “Tata Guines,” who from the time of his arrival to New York in 1950, until his death last February, accumulated a career of successes and worldwide fame.

The inaugural event will be a jam session of some of Cuba’s top percussionists and guests including: Yarold Abreu, Tomas “El Panga” Ramos, Adel Gonzalez, Eliel Lazo, Tata Guines Jr., and the groups Herencia and PDVSA from Venezuela and from Canada, the Winnipeg High School Jazz Band.

The festival includes an international percussion contest and the “Women in percussion” concert with performances by Anacaona, Caribe Gil, Son Damas and Obbini Bata.

On the closing night on October 25, the Canary Islands groups Del Tambor a Moises and Son Iya will perform as well as Cuban bands Havana D’Primera, Kilmax and Pupy y los que Son Son.