Miami Light Project and FUNDarte present 7th Annual Global Cuba Fest featuring Danay Suarez and Dafnis Prieto
Danay Suarez in Concert – February 7, 2014 8:00pm
Dafnis Prieto in Concert – February 8, 2014 8:00pm
Far Away Multimedia Exhibition – opens Friday, February 7, 6:00pm, open daily through GCF
The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse
404 NW 26 Street
Miami, FL 33127
For Tickets:
February 7, 2014 with Danay Suarez, $30 General Admission, $50 VIP (includes VIP seating and drink ticket)
February 8, 2014 with Dafnis Prieto, $30 General Admission, $50 VIP (includes VIP seating and drink ticket)
Weekend passes are available for $50 and include one general admission ticket per night, per pass.
Tickets available online
For the first time in Wynwood, Miami Light Project and FUNDarte are proud to present the 7th Annual Global Cuba Fest at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, featuring two of contemporary Cuban music’s most energizing performers, Danay Suarez and Dafnis Prieto, February 7-8, 2014
This weekend of diverse Cuban music celebrates the roots of Cuban music and the genre’s funkiest innovations exploring jazz, son montuno, bolero, trova, timba and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Global Cuba Fest kicks off on Friday, February 7, with singer/song writer and rapper Danay Suarez and concludes on Saturday, February 8, with a spectacular performance by Jazz percussionist, Dafnis Prieto.
Rounding out the weekend is a special multimedia interactive exhibition, Far Away, by composer Sage Lewis. Far Away is a video installation about the relationship between the US and Cuba told from the perspective of the youngest generations from both nations. Two virtual children’s choirs, one from Los Angeles and the other from Havana, sing together from across the ocean. The work was designed by artist Sage Lewis who interviewed the National Children’s Chorus (Los Angeles) and Coro Diminuto (Havana) about their thoughts on nationality and friendship. The children’s answers became the libretto that Lewis used to compose a ten-minute a cappella choral work. In the gallery, their images are life-size projections onto hanging scrims that face each other. Only being able to encounter each other through technology and music, the children transcend the political, geographic, and communication barriers that have divided their cultures for over 50 years.
Danay Suárez, self-taught Cuban singer of jazz and hip hop, began her music career through the Cuban rap movement. She could rap “with perfect flow and compelling, conscious lyrics†and she could also sing jazz, soul, reggae, blues, and more, with the same ease. By fusing elements of hip hop with jazz and traditional Cuban music, Danay has been celebrated around the world as an impeccable vocalist and poignant storyteller.
From 2008 until 2010 she was the lead singer of Cuban fusion group X Alfonso, and performed on stages in Panama, Mexico, Germany and Spain, and was featured in a special concert in honor of London’s Royal Ballet, London, at the British Embassy in Cuba. Her collaborations as a Havana Cultura solo artist tours to Europe introduced her to renowned British DJ Gilles Peterson, who, along with Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca, produced her debut CD Danay Suárez, Havana Cultura Sessions, her first foray into the world of jazz, and which gives a new twist to her career by fusing elements of hip hop with jazz and traditional Cuban music. Her follow up CD, CD Polvo de la humedad, is living tribute to the underground musical culture in Cuba, which passes new music by hand to the audiences at live concerts. In 2012, she accompanied British musician, DJ Mala, on a European tour to promote the CD Mala in Cuba and is currently recording her new album Palabras Manuales.
2011 MacArthur “Genius†Dafnis Prieto’s arrival in the U.S. from Cuba has been compared to that of an asteroid hitting New York. A Grammy and Latin Grammy nominee, Dafnis Prieto is easily the most impressive young drummer to come on the jazz scene during the past decade. Possessing awesome virtuosity and astonishing versatility, his compositions are elaborate compositions melding Afro-Cuban rhythms and modern jazz harmonies into music that is ecstatic and intelligent.
A resident of New York since 1999, he has already worked in bands led by Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Samuels & The Caribbean Jazz Project, Jane Bunnett, D.D. Jackson, Edward Simon, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdez, Claudia Acuña, Roy Hargrove, Don Byron and Andrew Hill, among others. He has performed at many national and international music festivals as a sideman and as bandleader including various of his own projects and music. Since 2005, he has been a member of the NYU Music Faculty.
Dafnis Prieto is the founder of the independent record company Dafnison Music. As a composer, he has created music for dance, film, chamber ensembles, and most notably for his own bands, ranging from duets to his “Small Big Band†and including the distinctively different groups featured by five acclaimed recordings as a leader: About The Monks, Absolute Quintet, Taking The Soul For a Walk, Si o Si Quartet- Live at Jazz Standard, and Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio. He has received new works commissions, grants, and fellowships from Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, East Carolina University, and Meet the Composer.
