Jazz triumphs at a Cuban festival that’s harder to get to

HAVANA -- Compared with earlier editions, this year’s Havana International Jazz Festival has proved to be a splitting headache for the American musicians who paid their own way to attend.

Both sides have toughened the bureaucracy of getting to Havana, with the Bush administration promising to enforce rules that previously were overlooked. And the response from American officials in Cuba has gone from one of celebration -- in past years officials planned concerts and sponsored lavish dinners -- to one of reproach.

Yet despite all this, the music has broken through. The American musicians have been rewarded with adulation from Havana’s jazz-obsessed public. And as last week’s performances showed, virtually every time an American player shared the stage with a Cuban musician, both were transformed.

In jazz, Cuban musicians command special respect, and not only because of the Herculean technique and conservatory-bred musicianship for which they are famous. Equally important, the roots of jazz run at least as deep in Cuba as in the United States, because the slave trade that came to the Americas also came to this island, bringing with it the musical culture of Africa.

Because Afro-Cuban jazz evolved somewhat differently than its North American counterpart, emphasizing rhythmic complexity above all else, the music there long has held the lure of something exotic to American jazz artists and jazz lovers.

For that reason, the musicians and the hundreds of fans who have followed them to the festival say they are determined to overcome the more formidable travel obstacles.

“I come here to play because I have learned that jazz is not the music of America alone,” said Danilo Perez, a prodigiously gifted Panamanian artist based in the Boston area.

“Jazz always has been a music of different cultures coming together, and one of those cultures is Cuba,” he said. “If you don’t come to terms with the music on this island, you have not come to terms with the full meaning of jazz.”

For this reason and others, many of the foremost musicians in American jazz -- from trumpeter Roy Hargrove to saxophonist David Sanchez -- have flocked to this festival, performing multiple shows most nights.

“I’ve been wanting to come here for I can’t remember how long -- ever since [trumpeter] Dizzy Gillespie told me how great it was,” said American guitarist Larry Coryell, who helped open the event Wednesday evening before a capacity audience at the Teatro Amadeo Roldan.

“When I played my first two tunes with the Cuban musicians, my jaw just about dropped. I could not believe how great they are,” added Coryell, echoing an observation made by musicians from around the world after standing toe-to-toe with their Cuban counterparts.

What has made this year’s festival intriguing is the particular alchemy that American and Cuban musicians have achieved.

Coryell, for instance, under normal circumstances can be an unapologetically cerebral player given to the softest musical gestures.

But when he played alongside the mighty Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes, who is artistic director of the festival, Coryell produced fiery lines and volcanic gestures of a sort that listeners would not have expected from him.

When the American blues musician Taj Mahal joined Valdes’ band, his rhythmic energy proved unstoppable.

“We come here as often as we can,” said Larry Clothier, the manager for Hargrove and one of the driving forces behind Hargrove’s Grammy Award-winning album “Crisol,” which was recorded partly in Cuba.

“I think Roy realized early on that there was so much to be learned from Cuban musicians that he wanted to play here as often as he could,” Clothier said.

The experience transformed not only Hargrove’s art but his career: The Grammy he received for “Crisol,” as well as the searing power of the music on the CD, catapulted the trumpeter to a new level of international acclaim.

Yet many of the American musicians and their managers said they have never had such a difficult time getting into Cuba. They complained of trouble obtaining licenses and other paperwork required by Washington, getting visas from Havana, and problems at airports in the U.S. and Cuba.

“The last time I was here, in 1998, it was totally different,” said noted New York trombonist-bandleader Steve Turre, who is among a long list of visiting Americans here, including such Hollywood celebrities as Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.

“Last time, you had Cuban and American musicians getting together at parties hosted by the American government,” Turre said. “You don’t see that this time.”

Indeed, the American Interests Section, which replaced the U.S. Embassy after the 1960s freeze in American-Cuban relations, this year did not organize a reception for American and Cuban musicians. In past years, jazz festival participants partied into the wee hours in the impeccably landscaped gardens behind the mansion where American diplomats work.

This is the first time the international edition of the festival has been staged since President Bush took office, so a new staff and a new chief of the mission, James Cason, represent the U.S. in Havana.

When asked about the American government’s attitude toward this week’s influx of U.S. performers and fans, an official with the American Interests Section said that Americans who do not have the proper licenses would be subject to penalties.

Regulations issued by Washington in 1963 as part of the Trading With the Enemy Act allow for sanctions, including $250,000 in fines for individuals and $1 million for corporations deemed in violation, though such fines rarely have been imposed.

“There’s a whole new attitude from the American government toward Americans trying to perform here in Cuba,” said Clothier, who has been bringing American artists to Cuba since 1990.

Still, the musicians who persevered said they were glad they did. They relished the response from the musically passionate Cuban audience members, who line up for the concerts hours before starting time and wait patiently until auditorium doors are opened. Virtually every performance has been packed, with new listeners rushing in to fill the seats of the occasional concertgoer who can’t stay for the marathon three- to four-hour shows.

“Who wouldn’t want to play for an audience like this?” Turre asked.

During the five-day run of the festival, the American jazz musicians become minor celebrities in Havana. They appear on local television with a frequency and prominence rarely accorded them back home, and they are recognized in the lobbies of the hotels by autograph seekers.

And there are benefits for the Cuban musicians as well. Because the long-running U.S. embargo has made it difficult for all but the most illustrious players to tour the United States, the jazz festival enables the local talent pool, which is deep, to be heard by American musicians, managers and entrepreneurs, who can spread the word.

The chance to create a buzz in the U.S. can be beneficial to a Cuban player, as it was for pianist Frank Emilio, who years ago won the attention of Blue Note Records, an American label with foreign operations. In 1999, one of Blue Note’s foreign imprints released Emilio’s stunning CD “Ancestral Reflections.”

The recording instantly turned a septuagenarian musician known primarily in Cuba into an internationally revered player with a fervent following in the States. “I’m always knocked out by the level of musicianship in this town,” said Jean Bach, director of the celebrated jazz documentary “A Great Day in Harlem.” “This time it’s the same as when I was here in 1948 and ’78. The music is colossal.”

Howard Reich is a jazz critic at the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune company.