[News] Direct from Cuba – Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla In Concert - October 14 - 6:30p Brava Theater - SF

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Direct from Cuba**
Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla****
In concert**
A musical celebration of the indestructible bridge of friendship ****
between the San Francisco Bay and Cuba!*

Special guests include Bay Area’s musical greats who have dedicated 
their lives to this musical friendship – Barbara Dane, John Santos, John 
Calloway, Greg Landau, Walfredo de los Reyes, DJ Leydis de Cuba, Erick 
Barberìa, Yeni Valdès and many more!

Plus the Bay Area premiere of**David Sandoval'sdocumentary film /Tan 
Cerca... Tan Lejos / So Near... So Far/,**the life story of Oakland born 
musician Pablo Menéndez

*Saturday, October 14, 2017*

**

*Brava Theater Center*

**

*Tickets:$25 –$75 ***

*6:30 | Pre-performance reception w/DJ Leydis de Cuba*

**

*7:30 | Film Screening, /So Near…So Far/***

**

*9pm | Live Concert, Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOgXOJq3sJQ

http://www.cubamezcla.org/UPCOMING.html

At a critical juncture in US-International relations, Brava brings the 
Bay a musical celebration of the indestructible bridge of friendship 
between the San Francisco Bay Area and Cuba. Joining Oakland-born music 
legend Pablo Menéndez in a concert are some of the Bay Area ‘s musical 
giants.

The recent Cuba/USA documentary, /So Near…so far/, about the life of 
Pablo Menéndez by the award-winning Cuban director Lourdes Prieto and 
L.A. Chicano David Sandoval, will have its Bay Area premiere at Brava 
Theater Center.The film follows the life of Pablo – born Paul in 
Oakland, CA, named after Paul Robeson – who arrived in Cuba at age 14 to 
study music for a year. He ended up staying and becoming part of the 
soundtrack of Cuba as a member of such legendary bands Grupo de 
Experminentacìon Sonora of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), and 
Sintesis. His mother, legendary singer Barbara Dane, was the first 
public person to defy the State Department ban on travel to Cuba after 
the 1959 Revolution and sang all over the island, on televisions, 
newsreels and on the front page of the newspapers, making her a symbol 
of the possibilities of friendship between the US and Cuba./So Near…so 
far/ reflects Pablo Menéndez’ journey and his life story as a “musical 
bridge” between the two countries.

The screening will be followed by a concert featuring Menéndez’ world 
fusion Cuban band, Mezcla, with special guests. Mezcla mixes 
Afro-Cuban/Yoruba roots music, rumba, Cuban rock, Cuban Jazz and Cuban 
new song resisting the commerciality of being defined by one style or 
sound. With Mezcla, Pablo transforms a long and meaningful artistic life 
into spiritual richness – building on the strength of traditions while 
continuing to re-invent the future.

For Calendar Editors:

*Direct from Cuba – Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla In Concert; Bay Area 
premiere of documentary film, /So Near…So far/*

**

*Saturday, October 14, 2017, 6:30*

**

*Brava Theater Center, 2781 24^th Street (at York), San Francisco 94110*

Tickets:$25 –$75

brava.org

____________________________________________________

About Pablo Menéndez & Mezcla:

Pablo Menéndez is the son of blues and jazz singer Barbara Dane and the 
brother of Bay Area Flamenco impresario Nina Menéndez. He has lived in 
Cuba since 1966 and has been an indelible part of the Cuban music scene 
for the past five decades.He has participated in the Nueva Trova 
movement as part of the Groupo de Experimentaciòn Sonora with Silvio 
Rodrìguez and Palo Milanès; the jazz world with Sonido Contemporaneo at 
the old Club Rio alongside legendary pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and 
others; Afro rock with the group Sìntesis (with Carlos and Ele Alfonso) 
and more. On the basis of this rich experience, Menéndez founded Mezcla 
in 1989. He also released a solo project on Zoho Music entitled /Havana 
Blues Mambo/; and under the direction of Pablo Menèndez, Mezcla has been 
a part of the Cuban musical landscape for more than 30 years. Mezcla 
brings together several veteran masters with some of the best young 
players on the scene today.At home in Cuba, they perform regularly at 
Havana’s premiere jazz club La Zorra y el Cuervo and at the annual 
Havana Jazz Festival. Mezcla has issued nine recordings with their 
legendary 1993 release /Cantos/ – re-release in 2014 – featuring the 
late Làzaro Ros, one of Cuba’s foremost singers of Afro-Cuban Yoruba 
santerìa chants. Their CD /Akimba!/, was pre-nominated for a Latin 
Grammy in 2002, and their 2010 release /I’ll See You in C-U-B-A/ was 
nominated for the Best of Latin Jazz Awards as well as were several of 
the group’s soloists. In 2014, Mezcla released the live concert DVD 
“Pablo Menendez & Mezcla todos Estrellas del Jazz Cubano”; and in 2015 
they released the CD /Pure Mezcla/ recorded live at Yoshi’s jazz club in 
Oakland. Mezcla’s animated videoclip “See you in C.U.B.A.”, created by 
Juan Padròn and Ernesto Padròn, was a finalist in the prestigious Lucas 
Awards in 2016. Current band members are percussionist Octavio 
Rodriguez, violinist and pianist Christopher Simpson, bassist Ibanez 
Hermida, drummer Ruy Lopez Nuñez, and new members (first time in the US) 
Lien Diaz and Yuko Fong

Guest artists joining the band from Cuba:

*Lien Diaz *issaid to be the hottest female rumba singer in Cuba right 
now, and has an amazing background of having been trained and worked as 
a doctor.She was part of the Afro-Rock band Sintesis, and is now 
recording on every major musical project taking place in Havana, from 
Team Cuba (the now deceased all–woman rumba project), to Eliades Ochoa’s 
latest (with an all-star cast of young jazz players). She has sung with 
Bonnie Raitt, Brenda Russell, Joan Osborne, and with Beth Nielsen 
Chapman in the movie /Bridge to Havana/.

*Yuko Fong *is an amazing musician who came to Cuba 17 years ago from 
Tokyo to study Afro-Cuban dance and music at the University of the Arts 
in Havana. She has been living in Cuba since then, performing with such 
Super Afro-Cuban bands as Obini Bata and Rumberos de Cuba; performing 
and recording with Super “Son" bands such as Ignacio Piñero Septeto 
Nacional de Cuba; and creating bridges between the artistic culture of 
Japan and the musical arts of Cuba. One of the most “African” sounding 
music Mezcla has ever recorded is a composition of Yuko’s based on a 
traditional Japanese poem about Mt. Fuji, /The Moon in the Mist/… or 
"Oboro Zuki Oh!”, where alongside her wonderful singing Mezcla 
percussionist Octavio Rodriguez sings Rumba in Japanese.

Special Bay Area guests:

*Barbara Dane*, a legendary folk, blues and jazz singer, was dubbed 
“Bessie Smith in stereo” by Playboy Magazine jazz critic Leonard Feather 
in the late 1950s. Time magazine called her voice “pure, rich…rare as a 
20-karat diamond.” Born in Detroit, Dane moved to San Francisco in 1949 
and became a popular singer at clubs along the Embarcadero, landing her 
first professional jazz job with Turk Murphy at the Tin Angel in 1956. 
In 1961, she opened her own club, Sugar Hill: Home of the Blues on San 
Francisco’s Broadway, presenting many great musicians including Jimmy 
Rushing, Mose Allison, and Big Mama Thornton. Throughout her career, 
Dane has worked with the Chambers Brothers, Earl Hines, Lightnin’ 
Hopkins, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and many others. She 
appeared on television on the Timex Jazz show with Louis Armstrong and 
was featured on Playboy After Dark, receiving an award from Hugh Hefner 
as one of the outstanding jazz artists of the year. During all her years 
singing blues and jazz, Barbara participated in the movements for peace 
and justice, civil rights and an end to the Vietnam war. She met and 
performed with Fannie Lou Hamer and in 1966, Barbara Dane became the 
first U.S. Musician to tour post-revolutionary Cuba. The impact on the 
Cuban public was indelible and she soon returned to take part in an 
international festival where she met like-minded singers from all over 
the world. This led to invitations to tour Europe Mexico, Nicaragua, the 
Far East and even North Vietnam as the war still raged. In the summer of 
2016 – at age 89 – Barbara released a new recording, /Throw It Away/, 
with a trio led by pianist Tammy Hall, offering new and original material.

*John Santos*is one of the Bay Area’s best known and loved musicians. He 
is a seven-time Grammy-nominated percussionist, U.S. Artists Fontanals 
Fellow, and from 2013-14 was the SFJazz Resident Artistic Director.Born 
in San Francisco, he is one of the foremost exponents of Afro-Latin 
music in the world today. A prolific performer, composer, teacher, 
writer, radio programmer and record/event producer whose career has 
spanned four decades, John has performed and/or recorded with masters 
such as Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Bebo Valdès, Max Roach, 
Bobby Hutchinson, John Handy – to name just a few.

*John Calloway*is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger who has 
performed with renowned jazz artists Israel Cachao Lopez, Max Roach, 
Omar Sosa, Dizzy Gillespie, Pete Escovedo, Jesus Diaz, John Santos and 
Wayne Wallace. As a faculty member at San Francisco State University, 
John founded the university’s Afro-Cuban Ensemble, which has enjoyed 
wide acclaim and popularity for many years. His recording credits as a 
performer and composer include his two CD projects, /Diaspora/ and /The 
Code/, and longtime collaborations with John Santos, Jesus Diaz and Omar 
Sosa. Included in his recording and writing credits are the Grammy 
nominations given to “SF Bay” (2003) with the Machete Ensemble, and 
Ritmo y Candela (1996) and Ritmo y Candela II (1998), produced by Greg 
Landau and featuring Cuban percussionists Changuito, Patato, and Orestes 
Vilato. He has frequently traveled to Cuba as program coordinator for 
PlazaCuba, an arts company that offers courses in conjunction with the 
National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba.In 2012, the Jazz 
Journalists Association honored Calloway as a “Jazz Hero.”

*Greg Landau*is an award-winning music/video producer, educator, and 
music historian with a doctorate from UC San Diego's prestigious School 
of Communication. Over the last 20 years, he has produced six Grammy 
nominated CD's and among the over 50 CDs, numerous film sound tracks and 
videos. He has worked with renowned artists including: Carlos "Patato" 
Valdez, Maldita Vecindad, Jerry Gonzalez, Kepa Junkera, Buena Vista 
Social Club Producer Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, Susan Baca, Bobi Cespedes, 
Dr. Loco, Pete Seeger, Omar Sosa, John Santos, Pancho Quinto, Quetzal, 
Los Mocosos, Fuga!, Sambada, Manicato, John Calloway and David Byrne's 
record label Luaka Bop, Vanguard Records, Six Degrees and many others. 
His musical productions have been featured in films and television 
including the new Benjamin and Peter Bratt film, La Mission, The Other 
Barrio, Oliver Stone's Comandante, Survivor: Nicaragua, CSI Miami, The 
Family Guy, Dexter, Burn Notice, Nash Bridges, Punk', HBO's Hemingway 
and Gelhorn, and several PBS documentaries

*Walfredo de los Reyes, Jr*. is a Cuban American percussionist and 
educator. Dubbed an expert in drum set and auxiliary percussion, he has 
performed and recorded with numerous bands and is known as a long-term 
member of Santana. He is a current member of the renowned band Chicago 
and is the title character in the Phish song “Walfredo.”

*DJ Leydis de Cuba*was born and raised in Cuba. Involved in the Cuban 
hip-hop movement since its inception, DJ Leydis helped organize some of 
Cuba’s most respected events and community programs. In 2005, she 
co-founded Omegas Kilay, a hip-hop theater collective in Havana. With 
her partner, DJ Yari, DJ Leydis created the first all-female DJ mixtape 
in Cuba. She has been a featured subject of the critically acclaimed 
documentaries such as Inventos: Hip Hop Cubanò, Jovenes Rebeldes y Mi 
Revolution. In 2006, DJ Leydis migrated, arriving to the U.S on a small 
boat, moving to the Bay Area to expand her work as a DJ. She has 
performed with Erykah Badu, ?uest Love, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and local 
hip hop sensations Los Rakas and Las Krudas. She returned to Cuba for 
the first time in March of 2016.

*Erick Barberia*is a Cuban dancer singer and percussionist. He began his 
professional career in the Artistic Community Company Korimakao as a 
drummer, dancer, actor, and as a master teacher of dancing, singing, and 
Afro-Cuban percussion at the Escuela Internacional de las Artes in 
Havana. In the US, Barberia has worked with many musical greats 
including master guitarist Freddy Clarke and Latin Jazz master Art 
Jackson and John Calloway. In 2006, with his brother Dreiser Durruthy, 
Erick had the honor to record, in Cuba, with the great Chico Valdes and 
his sister Mayra Caridad Valdes.

*Yeni Valdès*was born in Cuba and graduated from the Provincial School 
of the Arts. In Cuba, she performed with the group “PG” and NG la Banda, 
under the direction of maestro Josè Luis Cortès. In 2001 she joined the 
internationally known Cuban musical group, Los Van Van and for 16 years 
was the female voice of the band. She left Los Van Van earlier this year 
to move permanently to the Bay Area where she has a husband and has made 
a home.In June, she was featured at the Los Angeles Cuban-American Music 
Festival, her first solo performance in the US.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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