ZINC BAR & JAZZ AT THE CROSSROADS
present
ROMAN DÍAZ & RUMBA HABANERA
..
September 6th • October 4th
one set @ 8 pm
ZINC BAR
82 W 3rd Street, NYC 10012
"AfroCuban master drummer Román Díaz and his nine piece ensemble perform the potent magic of the AfroCaribbean experience: the ritual drumming, dance and call-and-response singing handed down from generation to generation in secret societies in Cuba; a living repository of the Yoruba, Congo and Abakuá cultures." - Jazz at the Crossroads
"If you’ve never experienced real Cuban rumba, you’ve missed something that is singularly and at once both reverent and sensual, wild and yet deeply ordered, hard-hitting while also full of subtle cues and charms, and potent with the visceral sensations that can only come from repeated cycles of rhythms working as one." - Larry Blumenfeld, Blu Notes/Wall Street Journal
Though Román Díaz came to fame as a member of the world-renown folkloric ensemble Yoruba Andabo, the Rumba he brings to Zinc Bar is a departure from the rehearsed, choreographed presentations of Cuba's official touring groups. His Rumba Habanera is the authentic, spontaneous Rumba of the back alleys and inner courtyards of the tenements of Havana. Often played on handmade instruments and wooden boxes, this Rumba, rarely seen by outsiders, is the Rumba of ambiente: an atmosphere building toward ecstatic fervor at the threshold of possession.
That seductive, mysterious ambiente might explain why the Rumba attracts visitors from la crème de la crème of musicians from every genre, from famous percussionists (Francisco Mela, Nicky Marrero, Mark Quinones and Samuel Torres) to jazz pianists (George Burton, Aruan Ortiz, David Virelles and Axel Laugart) and the celebrated New Orleans jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison, who sits in - and fits in - on almost every trip he makes to New York. Sometimes a superstar of Latin pop will show up - Ruben Blades came by recently - and there are frequent visits from a Hollywood movie star (going under the radar in baseball cap & sweats).
