The Pittsburgh Cultural trust announced that the three-time Grammy nominated Cuban timba group Tiempo Libre will perform tonight, February 18 at 7:30 pm at the Byham Theater (101 Sixth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222) as part of the Cohen & Grigsby TRUST PRESENTS Series.
Tickets ($30 - $45) are available at www.TrustArts.org, by calling 412-456-6666, or in person at Theater Square Box Office, 655 Penn Avenue. Groups of 10 or more, call 412-471-6930 or visit online www.TrustArts.org/groupsales. Student Rush Tickets are also available one hour before this performance, for 50% off.
Tiempo Libre has become known worldwide for its joyous and sophisticated concerts of the Cuban style of music called timba - a high-energy combination of Latin jazz and the traditional style of Cuban music called "son." As Jorge Gómez, the band's musical director and pianist puts it, their sound is "a mix of jazz with the flavor of Cuban music, like putting together Buena Vista Social Club and Chick Corea."
To the members of the now Miami-based group Tiempo Libre, music isn't just a way of life, it's a way of experiencing living. They approach their concerts as Cuban music parties. Audience members may choose whether to be a guest who sits back and enjoys the sophisticated music performed by these conservatory-trained musicians or one who claps, dances and sings along to the band's joyous sound. There hasn't been a concert yet where people haven't danced in the aisles. Tiempo Libre's goal is to serve as ambassadors to their Cuban musical heritage, while celebrating their new American experience.
The Cuban government forbade its citizens to listen to American radio when the members of
Tiempo Libre were growing up in Cuba. But, like teenagers everywhere, that which was forbidden was what the members of
Tiempo Libre most desired. The musicians fashioned antennas out of salvaged aluminum foil and clothes hangers and climbed up on their rooftops secretly at night to catch music from Miami airwaves. This music fueled their dreams of living in America and ultimately gave them the strength to leave it all behind - families, friends, and a country, a life - to pursue those dreams.
Through Tiempo Libre's most recent timba album, My Secret Radio, the seven musicians express the thrill of their secret rooftop radio sessions as well as the difficulties they faced starting from scratch in America, a culture so foreign and different from Cuba.
Just as jazz has travelled from New
Orleans to Chicago, New York and around the world, Tiempo Libre's members see Cuban timba music as a living, breathing art form that continues to evolve over time. Tiempo Libre's sound honors the group's Cuban musical heritage, while incorporating their American experiences - funk, hip-hop, rap, jazz, ska and pop. Tiempo Libre's members are pure timberos. They listen to timba, they play it, they dance it, and they live it. And as Cubans now living in the U.S., they absorb the musical nutrients of this country and incorporate them into their sound.
Today, having reunited in Miami, having formed the first all-Cuban timba group in the U.S., earned three Grammy nominations, performed on NPR, at The Hollywood Bowl, at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as on TV's The Tonight Show (with Joshua Bell) and Dancing with the Stars, Tiempo Libre's musicians are truly living the American dream.
The group's concert will feature music from its two Sony Masterworks releases, the Grammy-nominated Bach in Havana and the previously mentioned My Secret Radio. Bach in Havana takes Bach as a starting point from which to explore a wide range of Cuban music forms and rhythms and features guest tracks with Yosvany Terry and Paquito D'Rivera. The album is a true reflection of the Tiempo Libre's "double" lives studying classical music at Cuba's premier Russian-style conservatories by day and by night meeting up to play the traditional music of Cuba.
In addition to recording the duet "Para Tí" with virtuoso violinist
Joshua Bell (featured on Bell's album, At Home With Friends), Tiempo Libre's musical director Jorge Gomez' Cuban cha-cha-cha version of "Christmas Auld Lang Syne" for
Gloria Estefan and
Joshua Bell was featured on Bell's Musical Gifts from
Joshua Bell and
Friends and on The
Queen Latifah Show.
Tiempo Libre recorded O'Reilly Street with flute player Sir James Galway, which includes an Afro-Cuban take on music from the jazz suites of Claude Bolling. They bring Cuban music to new audiences by performing with leading orchestras, including the San Francisco and Houston Symphonies and the Cleveland Orchestra.
There is not a moment the group takes for granted. Says the group's pianist and musical director Jorge Gómez, "Every record we make, every concert we play seems like a gift. Each time we are about to walk on stage, I get a tingling sensation, that thrill that starts at the base of the spine and fills me with euphoria. It's that same thrill I felt up on that roof under the twinkling Havana stars, listening to my secret radio."
Photo credit: Elvis Suarez/GlassWorks MultiMedia
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