ROBERTO FONSECA & LA GRAN DIVERSION

"To the rhythms of jazz and newly discovered Cuban music, we danced feverishly until dawn,’ recalled author Alejo Carpentier in his chronicles." This was in the 1930s, and Cabane Cubaine was the most famous cabaret in Paris.

A century later, it is the intoxicating talent of Roberto Fonseca that will accompany this jazzy evening and take us on a wild dance.

Roberto Fonseca is one of those individuals whose presence in the here and now makes perfect sense. The pianist, singer, multi-instrumentalist, author, and producer was born in 1975 in Havana to a family of Cuban artists. His mother, Mercedes Cortes Alfaro, was a legendary dancer at Tropicana Club and became famous across Cuba for her skills as a bolero singer, while his father, Roberto Fonseca Sr., was a drummer.

This phenomenal artist made his debut as young as 15 at the Havana Jazz Festival, a festival he took over as leader 26 years later. After touring Italy, he recorded his first solo album, Tiene que ver, before becoming the young virtuoso in Buena Vista Social Club. This set him on a whirlwind journey around the world, collaborating with legends such as Ibrahim Ferrer and the eternal diva Omara Portuondo.

Following Roberto’s path to better understand his journey is like trying to dissect his music to explain his masterful improvisations. Roberto truly mirrors his music. Looking too closely risks losing track of its relentless coherence, where every project finds its meaning, as his many collaborations attest: whether it’s with the highly influential DJ Gilles Peterson in the UK, with whom he made an album that spans reggaeton, hip-hop, and Afro-jazz, or lighting up the stage at La Cigale in Paris with the great American DJ and producer Joe Claussel. With Baba Sissoko and, most notably, Fatoumata Diawara in Africa, after a significant meeting at the Marciac Jazz Festival, which was captured on the album At Home released in 2015. Not to mention his album No Limit, Afro-Cuban jazz recorded in Japan, followed swiftly by Elengó, which blended Afro-Cuban rhythms, hip-hop, and drum’n’bass.

The high-octane album Yo, which brought together fifteen musicians from Cuba, Africa, and the USA, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012; its follow-up 7 Rayos, released the same year, wonderfully blended Cuban sounds, classical music, West African instruments, electronic music, and spoken word poetry. The retrospective album ABUC found the crossroads between the past and the future by once again diving into the Cuban musical heritage in a bold and contemporary way. In 2019, he collaborated with Ibrahim Maalouf and Cuban rap star Danay Suárez on the album Yesun.

At just 48 years old, with no less than 9 solo albums under his belt, around 20 collaborative projects, and a Grammy Award nomination, Roberto Fonseca was honored in 2019 for his contribution to promoting music and was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest artistic honor.

At the peak of his career, Roberto Fonseca creates La Gran Diversión, a tribute to the golden age of Cuban music, the wild nights in Havana, and to Cabane Cubaine, Paris’ most famous cabaret from the 1930s: a truly unique experience embodied in an album, enhanced by the accompanying live performance where Fonseca’s boldness is combined with an orchestra comparable to Buena Vista’s. It is a subtle mix of tradition inherited from his musical training with the greats, his unmatched talent, and a dose of unbridled modernity.