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JAMES SANDERS & LEANDRO VARADY, ROBERTO FONSECA, BEN LA MAR GAY WITH MIKE REED AND MAYDA DEL VALLE AND ORLANDO “MARACA” VALLE, MARK RUFFIN -HOST
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DANCE PARTY BEFORE THE SHOW at 6:30 pm
Warm up and dance with your own Cuban Cocktail as we count down to the HotHouse Meets Havana Festival each night
Toast to HotHouse at 34 years with a brindis (cocktail ) and a dance
Thursday January 21- Sunday January 24 at 6:30pm CST
Opening each night will be a “cuban cocktail dance party” at 6:30 pm CST with DJ MADRID – Zoom registration pass code is 756 523
Zoom Registration for Dance Party only is linked here
Watch the Concert on the following channels
TWITCH
https://www.twitch.tv/hothouseglobal/
YouTube Streams
Monday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/hothousechicago
PROGRAM
JAMES SANDERS WITH LEANDRO LÓPEZ VÁRADY
JAMES SANDERS
Violinist James Sanders confidently crosses stylistic borders but stays true to both the jazz violin legacy and his rigorous classical training to create music that transcends categories yet remains faithful to its multiple inspirations, which include his Caribbean heritage. He is a regular presence in Chicago’s creative music movement and has performed around the world, including major jazz festivals in Italy, Brazil, Poland, and Chicago. He leads the long-running Latin jazz group James Sanders’ Conjunto as well as Proyecto Libre, an ensemble that pulls equally from free improvisation and Afro-Caribbean traditions. He formed the Dark Matter String Band in 2018 to interpret the tradition of African American acoustic string music in a contemporary context, and his latest project is a series of duets for drums and violin inspired by all the great rhythm masters that he’s worked with over the course of his career. His past projects include the Blue Violin Quartet, an exploration of the role of the violin in jazz.iolinist James Sanders confidently crosses stylistic borders but stays true to both the jazz violin legacy and his rigorous classical training to create music that transcends categories yet remains faithful to its multiple inspirations, which include his Caribbean heritage.
LEANDRO LÓPEZ VÁRADY
López Várady was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has performed at festivals around the world, including the Chicago Jazz Festival; Havana Jazz Festival in Havana, Cuba; Jazz y Pop Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the 57th International Festival in Ruse, Bulgaria. Leandro received a Gold Record Award for his participation in Mietek Szcześniak’s “Nierówmi” album. Currently, López Várady is the pianist for the Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. He also is a member of Doug Lofstrom & New Quartet, Steve Hashimoto’s “Sueños”, Juli Wood’s “Chicago Calling” and the Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre Music Ensemble.
ROBERTO FONSECA
Roberto Fonseca is a Cuban pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader. Havana-born and based, he has released nine solo albums, collaborated across genres, been nominated for a Grammy Award and toured the world several times over. Along the way he has achieved the aim with which he began his professional career in the early 1990s: “Wherever people are, I want them to hear my music and say, ‘This is Roberto Fonseca’.”
An artist of prowess and ideas, with a questing jazz sensibility and deep roots in the Afro-Cuban tradition, Fonseca continues to astound. ‘The most exciting pianist in Cuba,” avowed Britain’s Guardian newspaper. *Does something new with the old, without ever denying its origins, and opens himself to the world,” insisted France’s Le Figaro. “Makes all possibilities seem possible, and the moment feel perfect, intensely true,” declared the New York Times.
BEN LAMAR GAY
Ben LaMar Gay is a composer and cornetist who moves sound, color, and space through folkloric filters to produce electro-acoustic collages. His unification of various styles is always in service of the narrative and never solely a display of technique. A Chicago native, Ben’s true technique is giving life to an idea while exploring and expanding on the term “Americana.”
By being active in Chicago’s experimental music scene and having spent a three-year residency in Brazil, Ben has collaborated with several influential figures in the world of music, including Joshua Abrams, the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Bixiga 70, Black Monks of Mississippi, Celso Fonseca, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Theo Parrish, Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid, and Itibere Zwarg.
With the celebrated release of his debut album, Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun (International Anthem, 2018) and multiple commissions, Ben is establishing his unique place and voice in the creative ecosystem. The fact that the world is closer via technology and that everyone has access to the possibility of exploring different ideas makes his avant-garde version of “Americana” very global. Embracing global vision while remaining true to his roots, Ben aligns his creative output with the honest notion that he only knows how to be a man from the South Side of Chicago.
MIKE REED
Mike Reed is a musician, composer, bandleader and arts presenter based in Chicago. Over the last two decades he has emerged as a dominant force within Chicago’s diverse artistic community, both through the music he makes and the live events he produces. In addition to leading or co-leading several working bands, all rooted deeply in jazz and improvised music, he’s founding director of the Pitchfork Music Festival, the current programming chair of the Chicago Jazz Festival, and the owner and director of the acclaimed performing arts venue Constellation. He is a devoted cultural advocate committed to providing platforms for artistic expression unhindered by commercial pressures. In 2016 he also became the owner of the Hungry Brain, a cozy neighborhood tavern that’s been a fulcrum for live creative music and socially-driven public programs.
The Chicago drummer Mike Reed has an abiding interest in the jazz heritage of his hometown, and with the excellent pianoless quartet People, Places & Things — featuring the a
lto saxophonist Greg Ward, the tenor saxophonist Tim Haldeman and the bassist Jason Roebke — he interrogates that history from multiple angles.” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
MAYDA DEL VALLE
Poet and performer Mayda Del Valle has been described by the Chicago Sun Times as having “a way with words. Sometimes they seem to flutter and roll off her lips. Other times they burst forth like a comet streaking across a nighttime sky.”
A proud native of Chicago’s South Side, Mayda got her start at New York City’s legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, where she was the 2001 Grand Slam Champion and went on to win the 2001 National Poetry Slam Individual title, becoming the youngest and first Latina poet to do so. She went on to appear on 6 episodes of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO, and was a contributing writer and original cast member of the Tony Award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.
She has been featured in Latina Magazine, The Source, The New York Times and was named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences. Oprah’s “O” Magazine selected her as one of 20 women for their first ever “O Power List”, a group of visionary women making a mark in business, politics, and the arts. In May of 2009 she was invited to perform at the White House for President Obama and the First Lady.
ORLANDO “MARACA” VALLE
Orlando “Maraca” Valle is today one of the most internationally recognized Cuban musicians. He was the flutist and keyboardist of the group “Irakere” of Chucho Valdés, considered by many to be the best Latin jazz band in history. With his group “Otra Vision” he traveled to more than 60 countries.
International stars such as Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernández, Steve Turre, Brian Lynch, Miguel Zenón, David Sánchez, and Harold López Nussa have been invited by “Maraca” to join in various projects appearing in places such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Yoshis, Aspen, Teatro Chatelet, Montreux, Montreal, North Sea, Marciac, Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Opera of Athens, and others.
At the beginning of 2020, Maraca was a special guest for the Grammy winning album “The Omni-American Book Club / My journey Through Literature in Music” by the Big Band of the American trumpeter Brian Lynch, joining other jazz greats Dave Liebman, Regina Carter, Donald Harrison and Dafnis Prieto.
Many other “Maraca” albums have been awarded at “Cubadisco” and other important events of the record industry. He has collaborated as a musician, musical director, composer or arranger on more than 80 albums: among them “Café Atlántico” by Cesaria Évora, “Distinto y different” by “Afrocuban All Stars” or “Bajando Gervasio” by Amadito Valdés (timbalero of ” Buena Vista Social Club “, Septeto Santiaguero” and José Alberto “El Canario
In 2020, recordings of ” Los 80: Homenaje a la Orquesta Aragón ” and “Descarga A Buena hora con Maraca y su invitados” were released. His most recent DVD and CD entitled “Esa flauta” is a tribute to the Cuban flute music of all time.
MARK RUFFIN – HOST
Mark Ruffin is an American broadcaster, producer, and writer. He has won the regional Chicago / Midwest Emmy Awards two times, and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Ruffin has been the Program Director/On-Air host for Sirius XM’s Real Jazz channel since 2007
