Alexander Abreu y Havana D’ Primera
+ Javier La Rosa, Dr Jim & DJ Rich
Tickets available on the door from 9pm. £25 cash sales only.
Havana D’Primera onstage 11pm
Opening this year’s La Linea, the London Latin Music Festival, and making their UK debut will be the mighty 14-piece Havana D’Primera, currently the most popular group in Cuba. Led by trumpet player, songwriter and singer Alexander Abreu they have been creating the soundtrack to Cuban life over the last five years, and with songs like “Pasaporte” and “A Final de la Vida” Alexander Abreu documents what it is to be Cuban in the second decade of the 21st century. Their long-awaited first London show promises to be an all-night Latin music and dance extravaganza, with the addition of the hottest London-based Cuban salsa DJs Javier La Rosa, Dr Jim and DJ Rich making sure the dancefloor never stays empty. An absolute must for Salsa lovers.
Founded in 2008, Havana D’Primera performs a fascinating rhythmic and musical fusion of Timba, Salsa, Jazz, Funk and Afro-Cuban, and consists of the most significant musicians of today’s Cuban music scene. Following the enormous success of Haciendo Historias (2008), they released their second CD, Pasaporte, in May 2012. Already today it’s considered to be a musical masterpiece and one of the most promising Salsa CD releases of recent years with its title song alone having received 5 million views on YouTube.
Alexander Abreu initially made a name for himself as an instrumentalist and has played with the most well-known bands in Cuba, such as Irakere, Chucho Valdés, Omara Portuondo, Paulo FG, Isaac Delgado, grupo Dansón and Manolín El Médico De La Salsa. In addition to his own music he remains one of the most renowned trumpeters of Cuba, enriching almost every major music production on the island. Parallel to his career on stage, Alexander graduated at the National School Of Arts in Havana where he began to teach later on and started to compose his own songs. He has also had a starring role in the Cuban film 7 Days in Havana, a contemporary snapshot of this iconic city.