Cuba, Ahora! Yilian, Jorge and Dayramir

Deep and wide is the musical river that connects present-day Cuba with its rich, vibrant history. Today’s Cuban jazz scene is stylistically diverse as ever, pulsing with excitement and embracing new ideas and influences.  Three leading examples of Cuba’s newest generation of improvisers — Yilian Canizares, Jorge Luis Pacheco, and Dayramir González — meet to discuss their common heritage and share their individual stories.

Yilian Cañizares is one of the most intriguing contemporary violinists, singers and composers. Always staying true to her origins, she skillfully blends jazz, classical and Afro-Cuban rhythms with her otherworldly voice. Whether on stage or in a recording studio, there are few talented artists like Yilian – who was born in Havana and settled in Switzerland – with such great respect for the past and sensitivity towards the future.

Hailing from Havana, Cuba, Jorge Luis Pacheco is one of the leading pianists and musicians of the new generation of jazz in Cuba. Winner of the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in Switzerland, Pacheco is a fiery young pianist with “flying hands.” His music is a confluence of Cuban jazz, Cuban and Afro Cuban music, American jazz, and classical music with a measure of contemporary pop and soul.

Dayramir González started his professional career as a pianist and composer at the age of 16 with former Irakere member, Oscar Valdes’ Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Diákara. He received the highest awards at Havana’s JoJazz festival in 2004 and 2005 and three Cubadisco awards for his 2007 debut album Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé before proceeding to Berklee College of Music as the first Cuban national “Presidential Scholarship” recipient.

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, author, professor and producer. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, co-wrote Carlos Santana’s award-winning autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown, 2014), and is a producer of Carlos (2023), the documentary on Carlos Santana (Imagine Documentaries/Sony Pictures Classics). He has written books on two legendary recordings: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and one on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. He also edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.