…the neon hub blog…

There will be a bit of Havana at this year’s Worldwide Music Awards from special guest Danay, flying direct from Cuba and presented by Havana Cultura.

Gilles Peterson discovered Danay when he recently teamed up with Havana Cultura to produce an album of up and coming musical talent from the Cuban capital.

Peterson said of Danay:

“A remarkable new voice whom I met whilst interviewing artists for my BBC Radio 1 documentary. She played me some of her original songs and I immediately knew that she had to take part in this project. Lagrimas de Soledad was the song from her demo’s that I loved the most and it is on this where her work with Roberto is the most magical moment of the album”.

Watch Roberto Fonseca and Danay in action here. It is not hard to agree with Gilles, they form an impressive collaboration.

CD 1 – Lagrimas de soledad (No existen palabras) / Lagrimas de soledad

Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Music Awards are on being held on Saturday at The Garage in Islington. Tickets are £25 and it runs from 7pm until 4am or post 11pm tickets are £15 on door.

Share this...

To help build awareness of the site Havana Cultura launched a Twitter Treasure Hunt this week and the prize is for two VIP tickets to Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura album launch party in Paris on 26th November. The winner will travel to Paris with a friend via Eurostar and spend three nights at The Hotel Amour – NEON wants to enter just for the name of the hotel.

The treasure hunt will run for two weeks via the Havana Cultura Twitter profile. On the Monday, Wednesday and Friday 2 clues will be posted, the first at 1pm and the second at 5pm. The ‘clues’ hope to encourage participants to have a good look round the site while searching for the answers.

How to enter – follow Twitter account @_HavanaCultura_
Find the clues via the site
Reply with your answer
To catch up the hashtag is #havanatreasurehunt

The winner will have to answer each question and then submit a final tie breaker – the winner will then be chosen at random.

NEON has recently spent a lot of time browsing Havana Cultura – a site that has been developed to give modern Cuban artists from the city of Havana a platform to showcase their work through videos. The featured artists present video clips demonstrating creativity that there is a thriving artistic scene beyond Buena Vista Social Club, introducing themselves through their favourite spot in Havana explaining how the area has influenced their careers.

NEON’s fave video is from composer William Vivanco reflects on the Malecón – the huge walled walkway between the sea and the city when, at high tide, kids play and Cubans wait for the huge sprays to cool them down.

As well as launching the site Gilles Peterson has collaborated with Havana Cultura to produce a 2-disk album that is the culmination of a year long project that saw Peterson travel to Cuba to find the very best new talent in Havana. The album features over 20 musicians and artists recorded across 28 tracks to celebrate Cuba’s freshest sounds that range from Latin, Afro-Jazz and Fusion to Hip Hop, Funk, Reggaeton and Pop. The album also includes a number of traditional Cuban classics re-recorded by Peterson.

Share this...