We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

Award-winning trumpeter and composer David Buchbinder teams up with a crew of top Jazz and World musicians to present this exhilirating, unprecedented project of musical discovery: the Jewish-Cuban connection. David Buchbinder’s Odessa/Havana presents “delicately textured and dazzlingly tuneful music, with powerful, swinging and lyrical playing”, that is “passionate, dancing and completely irresistable.” Arising out of the musical ferment of the most diverse city on the planet–Toronto–this truly original sound is a collaboration between the writing of Buchbinder and Grammy-nominated Cuban piano master Hilario Durán, and the band of killer musicians. Together, these forces take audiences on a journey of cross-cultural discovery, that consistenlty engages, challenges and delights.

Odessa/Havana’s two CDs have been beautifully received, hailed as outstanding in both the World Music and Jazz realms. Walk to the Sea was recently honoured with a JUNO Award (Canadian Grammy) and the group’s self-titleddebut CD nabbed a Canadian Folk Music Award, while the two recordings (released internationally on the Tzadik label), have received well over 100 rave reviews. The band has toured across North America, playing to sold-out houses in every venue, and was at the core of David Buchbinder’s multi-disciplinary creation Andalusia to Toronto, commissioned by oneof Canada’s greatest venues, Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music.Now, on the heels of the release of their sophomore CD, they are ready to take on touring the world.

While the cities and cultures of Odessa and Havana might seem many miles apart, their musical associations are many-faceted, multi-layered and rich indeed; rooted in their common ancestry in medieval Andalusia and sharing Arabic, Roma (Gypsy), Sephardic and North African forbearers. The two musics already share haunting minor modalities, improvisatory flourishes, a strong rhythmic drive and deeply spiritual underpinnings. And both musical traditions have long since proven their suitability for creative adaptation, serving as a kind of “raw material” for musical development (Latin jazz, modern klezmer/“Radical Jewish Culture”). Buchbinder and Durán’s compositions explore these commonalities as they break new ground, and the recent inclusion of their special arrangements of Sephardic songs have taken the music to a new level of richness. Without a doubt, Odessa/Havana’s compelling and powerful performances will bring your audience a peak musical experience. Guaranteed!

Zemog El Gallo Bueno official site | Zemog El Gallo Bueno on Facebook

Zemog EL Gallo Bueno is a New York City based group of musician friends who play Avant-Latin-Roots music. Zemog was Created and led by Puerto Rican/Peruvian composer, visual artist, educator and multi-instrumentalist Abraham Gomez-Delgado.Zemog is a 2017 international mutation that plays 21st century Latin music adventuring through 1930’s Puerto Rican street cries and laments, 60’s free jazz fumes, 70’s New York salsa residue and the current climate of injustices in our world.
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Zemog El Gallo Bueno has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Montreal Jazz Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Joe’s Pub, Jazz Gallery, S.O.B’s, Lincoln Center, BAM, Chicago World Music Festival, Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, Zebulon and Camaradas El Barrio.
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Zemog believes that racism, sexism, classism, religious intolerance, and homophobia in all of it’s manifestations are all of our issues to resolve and desolve together no matter who you are. Oh, yes, and….Let’s dance!