A deep dive into Cuba's rich musical history, reported from Havana

Alt.Latino

NPR

Music

4.5 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it really a good idea to take a vacation with your coworkers? If you're part of the Alt.Latino team, it is.
Last month Alt.Latino co-host Anamaria Sayre decided to join Felix Contreras on a planned trip to attend the 39th annual Havana Jazz Festival, an international event that attracts fans of both Cuban music and jazz from around the world. Spread out among several historic venues around the Cuban capital city, the team spent eight days taking in the sights and sounds of one of the oldest cities in Latin America. Hours before they returned home, Felix and Ana recorded this episode reflecting on everything they heard and the legacy of Cuba's musical diversity.

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
0:10.5	Felix.
0:11.4	You know, I had a Cuban restaurant I used to go to when I was a kid, and it was called Felix's.
0:16.2	You're kidding.
0:18.2	They still know me because I love the Arros and leche so much. Well, you have to tell them
0:22.2	now that you actually had a chance to go to Havana with Felix. From NPR music, this is Alt Latino.
0:33.6	I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin.
0:38.2	And this week, the Chisemay had a Cuban accent.
0:40.9	Because that was the sound of us in Havana, Cuba, in late January, when you and I and
0:45.7	NPR Music Executive producer Soraya Mohamed went on a quote-unquote vacation.
0:51.2	Yeah, real vacation with coworkers, Felix.
0:54.0	It worked out. It was a lot of fun. We went
0:55.9	toward the 39th annual Jazz Plaza, the big international jazz festival there, where we took in lots
1:01.1	of music and got a chance to see a lot of Cuba. We stayed in Havana and got to see one of the
1:07.9	oldest cities in Latin America. Honestly, Felix, I was completely unprepared.
1:12.6	I have never seen a city like this. One of the most impressive places I've ever been with the colorful colonial buildings, the old cars.
1:20.6	It's really amazing.
1:21.6	And it was a lot of fun to get your impressions because that was your first visit. I've been there three times.
1:26.6	I was there in 2016, 2020, and then this year in 2024. And each time it's a different dynamic based on
1:33.6	the geopolitics, just observations about what's going on in the world that's enabled me to speak
1:39.2	with a little bit of knowledge about what's going on in Cuba. And you know, Felix, I am so
1:43.6	excited to share some of what we saw there because I had so many questions
	...

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