TCU Jazz Ensemble travels to Cuba

They're among the first major university musicians to play in the communist nation since the 1960s.

Fort Worth, TX

12/20/2010

By Katherine Hopper
The TCU Magazine

Dizzy Gillespie helped turn America on to Cuban music back in 1940s and ’50s, igniting a nationwide mambo craze.

But when Fidel Castro took control of the island nation in 1959, the revolution severed the close ties between Cuban musicians and their American counterparts. Curt Wilson, director of jazz studies at TCU, never expected his students would get the opportunity to share a stage with native Cuban musicians and perform on Cuban soil.

But today, the TCU Jazz Ensemble returns from five days in Havana after performing at the Havana International Jazz Festival, becoming one of the first American bands allowed to perform in Cuba in the last 50 years.

“Obviously, this will be a ground-breaking event for all of us,” Wilson said before leaving. “Except for a few church music groups over the years, we will be the first major university musical ensemble to have performed in Cuba since the 1960s. The students will get a first-hand view of a socialist state in action — the good and the bad!”

The United States discourages American citizens from traveling to Cuba, noting on the State Department’s web site “Cuba is a totalitarian police state which relies on repressive methods to maintain control.” But the agency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury does grant special licenses that allow U.S. residents who fit certain criteria to spend money and travel in Cuba, including persons with close relatives in the country, journalists, educators, athletes and performers. Earlier this year, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra under the leadership of Wynton Marsalis performed in Cuba, becoming the first professional group to take the stage there since the 1960s, Wilson says.

The TCU group’s invite came from the travel group Harmony International, after members of the organization enjoyed the jazz ensemble’s performance in February at the Texas Music Educators Conference in San Antonio. Harmony International approached Wilson about the Cuban trip and took care of contacting the U.S. State Department to get approval and visas for all the participants.

While there was some delay in obtaining final State Department clearance for the trip, the group left campus Dec. 15 and included School of Music faculty clarinet soloist Gary Whitman, photographer Paul Cortese, translator Liz Branch, and German Gutierrez, director of TCU’s Latin American Music Center, and his wife, Sylvia, who were slated to perform a couple of Cuban popular songs with the band.

“We will be performing some compositions by Dizzy Gillespie, who was a champion of Cuban music and was responsible for bringing many Cuban musicians to the United States,” Wilson says. “Many of our tunes will have Latin connections —“Malaguena,” “Tico-Tico,” and “South of the Border,” he adds. “Of course, we will also play many standard American Big Band hits from the ’30s and ’40s. We will also do a tribute to the great Duke Ellington. The Gutierrezs will sing “La Poloma” and “Guantanamera” with the band. Gary Whitman will perform “Concerto In Swing.” We will also do master classes and a concert at the National School of Music in Havana.