TRAVEL TUESDAY / JAZZ IN THE FORBIDDEN ISLE

MUSIC EVERYWHERE--Music is the real language of Cuba and is spoken in clubs, hotels, homes, schools and street corners throughout the country.  Here a Havana arts & social center jazz group performs for U.S. visitors.  Note the invented musical instrument on the right, which produced lively Latin vibes all afternoon.

A jazz oriented tour of Cuba is looking to fill seats on its trip from San Diego, March 25 thru March 31, 2016.  Called “Cuba: Latin Beats,” the tour is organized by San Diego City College KSDS radio station (aka Jazz 88.3 FM).

Join host Chris Springer and fellow KSDS listeners on an in-depth music and cultural exploration of the isle of Cuba. Enjoy hearing the famous rhythms of son Cubano and rumba in the very place they were invented. Visit the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana’s botanical gardens and many of Hemingway’s haunts.

In addition, you’ll stroll through the colorful plazas of Old Havana,enjoy fun salsa and drumming lessons and cruise the Malecón in a perfectly restored 1950s Chevy. This custom “people to people” journey has been specially designed for the KSDS traveler who is interested in music, art, history, architecture and culture.

For more info or to book the tour go to http://www.jazz88.org/

On the home page find the Cuba Tour icon and follow the directions.

The trip is via Earthbound Expeditions: www.Earthboundexpeditions.com

This tour company and others like (Gate 1 Travel and Roads Scholars) specialize in sanctioned trips to Cuba.

VERSATILE--Don't let this string Cuban sextet fool you.  They were anything but stuffy. After performing Mozart for American tourists they closed the performance with Brazilian and U.S. numbers ranging from Juan Carlos Jobim to Miles Davis.  Everyone ended up dancing with the "band" at the end.  That's Cuba

Images on this blog were taken last spring on a Gate 1 Travel tour to Cuba.  Photography by Michael Shess.

Other trips to Cuba:
Road Scholar is a U.S. State Dept. approved travel agency dealing in People to People tours to Cuba.
http://21305b.roadscholaradventures.org/?so=PEY-A-CUBA-FB