Rumba, Jazz & Son in Varadero Josone

Night falls in Varadero and the streets look practically inhospitable. As I approach 59th Street, everything is changing: outside Josone Park, a line of people are waiting to enter and listen to rumba, jazz and son.

The concert space is positioned like a hidden paradise. The map first indicates a path of stones and flowers leading to a lake crossed by a bridge whose light is reflected in the water and, finally, a staircase that, like a passageway, reveals an alternative reality. Then appears a crowd that gathers in search of fun. Behind the food and beer kiosks stand two majestic stages, one next to the other, with instruments waiting to be possessed by their owners.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Party airs came to this park from August 19 to 25 with the Varadero Josone festival: Rumba, Jazz & Son, which this year has mutated and offers an ample space to the distributionThe genre with which it closes each night.

El Dray closed the first day of concerts (Wednesday 21) and seemed to me, without a doubt, one of the best exponents of this style. He began with riffs of guitar, roll of drums and a certain rock epicness that seemed improbable for the beginning of a concert of this genre; both were slowly intermingled, until the key of the cast entered in that sequence. Under the format of piano, trumpet and trombone in the brass, güiro, congas, drumThe band, bass and backing vocals were the back-and-forth journey from timba to cast - with short stops at conga, rumba and, on occasion, samba - which called for dancing with long choruses that the audience sang at the top of their voices, and lyrics that are in a popular register of speech and verge on the vulgar, without being rude.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

The other exponents were Charly & Johayron (Thursday 22nd) and Wampi (Saturday 24), with Adriano DJ completing the lineup. Despite the fact that the delivery boys did not make up the majority of the artists that performed, the festival's axis revolved, to a large extent, around them. Adriano DJ was in charge of playing for five days the same number one songs of the moment, that is, in a way, a playlist The artists who were not part of the event were present, which was received positively by the largely young audience.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Issac Delgado, host of the festival, believes in "supporting young people coming out of the neighborhoods" and that urban music deserves to be in this kind of events; that's why he decided to give a space to the genre, which also attracts a larger audience. It is still an enigma to me why Charly & Johayron were probably the most anticipated artists of the entire festival. You could feel the tension in the air on Thursday while other bands were playing, and a large part of the audience was walking from one side to the other waiting for the arrival of the duo, whose concert was like a loop of the same song with "changes" in the lyrics, where the woman went from being sexualized and demonized to empowered for having been a victim, or idealized and worthy of a serenade in the style of the deepest neighborhoods of the capital.

Wampi, on the other hand, achieved a sound of his own, a mixture of timba with reggae, cumbia, electronica, a little bit of everything, but always with Cuban essence and popular discourse in a romantic key. His concert was proof of his versatility as an artist.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

What happens when so many rhythms converge within the festival is that the less popular ones are overshadowed; for example, there is a contrast between these concerts and the jazz concerts which, despite their quality, are not so well attended. The group Espirales (Thursday 22), an emerging lineup that in its short trajectory has already been part of important festivals on the island, performed within this genre. Espirales freshly interpreted great Cuban composers such as Abelardo Valdés, Ruy López-Nussa, Aldo López-Gavilán, Ernesto Oliva, among others, which they mixed with some compositions of the authorship of its director Rodrigo García, creating a fabric in which Cuban music classics converge with the sound of today. Watching them play is a joy for any jazz lover: each one creates a special connection with his instrument that expands and links with the rest. They had as guests Germán Velazco on sax, Orlando Valle, Maracaon flute, and Aldo López-Gavilán on piano.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Also on stage were Cuban music classics such as Ruy López-Nussa and La Academia (Friday 20); and others of younger generations such as Real Project (Saturday 24), which has mutated, but maintains its format of drumpiano, bass, trumpet and trombone. Ruly Herrera presented new young talents and a repertoire made up of songs from his album Mutación (2023) and also from their next album. Real Project's sound is always unique: latin jazz funked, with influences from neo-soulwhich immerses the audience in a mystical atmosphere. These concerts, including the Mayquel Gonzalez quartet (Sunday 25), were an explosion of sounds, a mixture of rhythms and colors.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Perhaps one of the elements that worked to the detriment of the jazz concerts was the fact that the rumba was the predecessor of the rumba with the power that characterizes it. The genre was represented by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Rumba Timba (Thursday 22) -the latter, descendants of the Matanzas rumba tradition and led by Diosdado Enier Ramos. Figurineson of Diosdado Ramos-. With costumes of the Afro-Cuban tradition, dances and music, on Friday 23rd. Rumba All Stars created a folkloric spectacle of great theatricality. Their sound was exclusively extraordinary, combining high and low voices in a perfect interplay in which the bass as the lead voice led the ensemble along with the clave, with the congas marking the rhythm. And finally, the Santiago Alfonso Folkloric Company to close Sunday 25.

The festival set a pattern for the concerts, which generally began with rumba, followed by jazz, then pop or fusion, and culminated with salsa and cast.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

In this sense, the third day (Friday 23) presented a better distribution of artists, with an order in which the energy was growing progressively. The night was opened by La Original de Manzanillo, directed by Pachy Naranjo and featuring Eliades Ochoa as a guest, who performed classic songs and some premieres in their own sonero style. This was a special moment for the long-time dancers and an opportunity for the younger ones to listen live to songs that resonate in the Cuban imaginary.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

This was followed by Ruy López-Nussa and La Academia, who jazzed in Latin style with a proposal for a dialogue between Afro-Cuban percussion and drums. And if energy is what it's all about, who better than Síntesis, the next proposal of the night, who with the combination of Yoruba chants, rock and jazz, made this occasion a moment of ancestral connection.

There was a space on the stage for JG, and immediately after that came Adalberto Alvarez y su Son, a group that, despite the absence of its creator, has maintained the sonera tradition with unmatched authenticity, offering melodies and choruses that invited the audience to be in constant enjoyment and movement. The night ended with El Micha, a legend of Cuban reggaeton who never loses his flow. His show was a mix of the most relevant songs of his career, with a bit of rap and improvisation.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

In the intervals of the festival, Diván (Wednesday 21), a young band that once captivated adolescent hearts, today resembles an echo of times gone by. They were also Toques del Rio (Thursday 22), Anacaona, Haila (Saturday 24), and DeCuba (Sunday 25), as predecessors of the penultimate segment of the evening, headed by Issac Delgado y La Orquesta (Thursday 22). Alain Perez (Saturday 24), known for his virtuosity, presented a repertoire that combined the traditional with the modern; Elito Revé and his Charnagón and Brenda Navarrete (Sunday 25) that despite some technical problems at the beginning, gave a magical concert, full of good vibes, in which those of us who were not chased away by the previous group, danced under the rain to the rhythm of their batá and the incredible choral arrangements.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

All of these, as expected, were presentations of the highest level. Los Van Van opened the festival, making a plea that tradition can be maintained in order to dance, and that mischievousness and elegance can coexist in the same song.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Under the production of Four Wives, Varadero Josone: Rumba, Jazz & Son not only stood out for its incredible lineup, but also for its impeccable organization. It weaved a narrative that united past and present - in which methods to capture the public's attention at all times remain to be revised - where tradition and modernity dialogued as a way of preserving and revitalizing culture. The event created a space where diverse artists and styles converged, and where, after an early morning of music, attendees could be caressed by the sea breeze. Its ability to reinvent itself and always offer a sample of the best of Cuban music is what keeps it at the top as one of the best festivals of the moment, year after year.

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)

Photo: Courtesy Varadero Josone Festival (@georgehpic @ale_vellon)