Project Title: De Aquí p'Allá Con Clave
Recipient Organization: La Peña Cultural Center
Lead Artist: Jesus Diaz
Genre and Date Awarded: Traditional Arts, June 2003
To Be Completed: February 27 and 28, 2004

La Peña Cultural Center and Jesus Diaz will collaborate with Cuban master musicians and dancers to create a new work exploring and celebrating the evolution of Cuban music. The project will combine folkloric arrangements with contemporary compositions, demonstrating ways that contemporary jazz and timba draw from a range of folk traditions.

Over the past decade, due to the largest cultural opening between the United States and Cuba since the Cuban revolution, many gifted Cuban musicians and ensembles have settled in the Bay Area, joining gifted Cuban musicians who had lived in the region for a long time. Through Arcoiris Musical, Jesus Diaz?a talented percussionist, singer, songwriter, bandleader and educator?will gather these Cuban artists of the Bay Area (and a few from Los Angeles) to collaborate for the first time. A strength of the project is the artists’ opportunity to learn from one another. For example, all of the traditional artists have grown up learning their cultural traditions in both informal and formal settings, but represent different generations, family and artistic traditions, and come from different parts of the island.

The finished work will be a full-length performance showcasing Afro-Cuban and other folkloric traditions, works integrating African polyrhythms with Spanish melodic and language influences, leading up to Latin jazz and timba. Diaz will work with the leaders of each genre of Cuban music. He will collaborate with Carlos Aldama and Sandy Perez on the development of folklore arrangements from their respective regions and with Jose Francisco Barroso, and Susan Arenas Pedroso on choreography to be performed in concert with the music. He will work with Raul Pineda, Gustavo Ramirez, Rigoberto Lopez and other innovators on the development of the more contemporary Cuban music sections. Members of Jesus Diaz’s band, QBA, will participate in the folkloric portions of the finished work and the entire band will perform the contemporary compositions and arrangements with the guest artists.

Arcoiris Musical will be presented for two evenings at a 350-seat venue in March 2004. La Peña Cultural Center will produce a “Conversation with the Artists” in conjunction with the second performance and will videotape, record, and photograph the events.

Founded in 1975, La Peña Cultural Center promotes and presents nationally and internationally recognized artists whose works examine socially relevant themes and are deeply rooted in cultural traditions. It offers more than 200 artistic and educational programs each year. Over the past ten years, La Peña has been a leading presenter of Cuban music, offering free and low-cost Cuban music workshops and a great number of performances by Cuban groups. Jesus Diaz has been performing at La Peña for fifteen years.

Cuban born percussionist, bandleader, and composer Jesus Diaz arrived in the United States from Havana in 1980. He quickly chose the San Francisco Bay Area’s music scene as the grounds to establish his new home. His local and worldwide performances in collaboration with renowned artists are recognized for their contributions to Cuban music worldwide. Diaz is co-founder and co-owner of Bombo Music Productions, a member of the all-percussion group Talking Drums, leader of the band QBA and, as time permits, a teacher at La Peña Cultural Center.