HAVANA, Cuba (WGNO) — For the past several years, the Trombone Shorty Foundation in New Orleans has traveled to Havana as part of a cultural exchange.
The goal of the partnership is for the students to share musicianship, but in doing so, they’re making history.
Foundation Executive Director Bill Taylor explained the longstanding connections between the cities. “When you come here, you’re just immediately hit with the similarities with New Orleans.”
Havana is 670 miles across the Gulf of Mexico from the Crescent City and in some ways is very different. However, there is a shared musical history.
“So much of the music here and so much of the music and culture in New Orleans is informed by Africa through the Caribbean,” said Taylor.
To that end, a celebratory partnership of continuing that connection is being explored by the students of the Shorty Foundation, and Guillermo Tomas Conservatory has sprung up as a binational means of young musicians sharing their music.
According to the foundation’s namesake, Troy Andrews, “The Mardi Gras Indian second line music that we play, we may accent the beat on a different beat but they have the salsa music, and if you take some of that out of there. They’re like cousins you know, they’re like cousins rhythmically.”
The partnership has also included Cuban students coming to America. Some performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, along with the foundation.
The trip to Havana includes an instrument giveaway for some of the conservatory students, but it’s not all studying tunes.
Many New Orleans musicians traveled, performed and shared with the students as well.
“I think the exchange is a perfect word because they’re giving me something, I want to give them something and eventually we make something beautiful,” said Grammy Award winner PJ Morton.
The annual exchange is called “Getting Funky in Havana,” produced by Cuba Educational Travel and supported by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation.
A five-day taste of all that the Carribbean’s largest island has to offer, but centered around lifting the music and these young musicians.
Foundation student John Rhodes stated, “Although we may be in different parts of the world we still have similar musicians, similar sounds and similar knowledge in music.”
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