In 2001 legendary Cape Jazz exponent Robbie Jansen and cultural historian Vincent Kolbe travelled to Havana on a personal and musical journey of discovery. Casa de la Musica is a joyful musical exploration of the common threads of Creole culture that link Cape Town and the Caribbean.
In an extraordinary display of musical virtuosity, Robbie jams with accomplished Cuban musicians in a variety of genres. The musical journey spans everything from casual meetings with young musicians practicing in a park to jamming with a salsa band and Orlando Sanchez’s Cubajazz trio.
Listening to the rhythms of the Santeria musicians – African traditional religious music that has endured in Cuba since the time of slavery – brings home the African roots of Cuban popular music. A meeting with saxophonist Francisco Sanchez explores the contemporary roots of Cuban music in US jazz and Cuban traditional music – a meeting which raises a distinctively Cuban view of Wim Wenders’s Buena Vista Social Club.
An impromptu improvisation of a Cape goema liedjie with the accomplished jazz pianist Toni Perez reminds us of the underlying experience of slavery and colonisation that provide the common threads of Creole experience and culture. Casa de la Musica provides a unique musical reflection on the universal elements of Creole culture – exploring the related but distinctive threads of ethnicity, culture and history which have produced diverse cultural expressions.