Hothouse Meets Havana – Delectable Music Odyssey

With the latest change in America’s Executive Office, the United States assumes a new, much more cosmopolitan stance in the world. Hothouse’s 4-day musical extravaganza ending Sunday, January 24th seems tailor made to embody all that this momentous change represents.

Celebrating its 34^th year as an incubator, conduit and promoter of primarily musical art forms that hover in the land of the experimental, the progressive and the non-commercial, Hothouse has earned a reputation for sponsoring excellence. 

Hothouse Meets Havana, a celebration highlighting the contributions and collaborations of music emanating from and between the US and Cuba, exemplifies the range of musical exceptionalism Hothouse has become renowned for showcasing.  With the core musical component of the festival running from Thursday, the 21^st to Sunday, the 24^th; a fascinating prelude occurred a few days earlier that helped shape how the festival could best be understood and appreciated.  On the Martin Luther King Holiday, January 18^th, four prolific and broadly respected artists with close professional affiliations in both countries shared their feelings for and their knowledge of the music.  Former Smithsonian director, James Early hosted the Zoom circle of what could easily pass for a clutch of engaging philosopher musicians whose passion for the music was only exceeded by the vigor of their enthusiasm.  Arturo O’Farrill, Michele Rosewoman, Jean-Christophe Leroy and James Sanders made up the brain trust with Early acting as the gracious and winningly empathetic host.    

Jazz pianist, Michele Rosewoman’s career is typical of those who joined her on the 18^th. Decades long, steeped in experience, soaked in musical knowledge that runs deep and wide with a fine appreciation for the music flowing through Cuba, she seemed to speak for all of them when she said simply, and profoundly, “music is our way”.  The quiet absoluteness of her statement caused a noticeable pause while its significance not only reverberated through the rest of the discussion but became its underpinning.  From that point on, things became a little more close.  Like listening to a handful of people who share a tight kinship talk about two friends who fell, and keep falling, in love with each other; they talked in depth about how compatible each, Cuban music and American jazz, is to the other.

Even though the conversation took several side trips, they all served to underscore crucial aspects of the central topic, the music itself, and often highlighted valuable insights into its source.  As the musicians reacted to each other’s words, it became more and more clear that the music they were referring to was as much about people and place as anything else.  And as they talked about their understanding of each, concepts like spirituality and impact kept bubbling up.  The musicians and the moderator shared more than a common passion.  All are equally anxious to see the channels fostering musical exchange between the two countries become much more open and for the flow of bilateral influence to be sustained. 

The entertainment portion of Hothouse Meets Havana put the music, with all its diversity and beauty, on center stage.  Opening with Roscoe Mitchell on the 21^st,  Hothouse zeroed in on the heart of its mission statement.  Primarily known for his playing of the saxophone, like many musicians, Mitchell is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and is fascinated with sound.  Thursday night he also went the percussive route to do what he’s so acclaimed for; improvising brilliantly.  Perhaps it’s the inquisitiveness of Mitchell’s sound that distinguishes him from others and the reason he finds himself buried in so many prestigious awards.  Certainly idiosyncratic, but also cosmic in its reach, Mitchell’s music is by nature transcendent and prone to probe and explore. You’re left with a sound tapestry that’s curious and sublime in the way it stimulates the mind.  Thursday night’s performance was Mitchell at his most pure.

Playfulness also filled the opening night’s bill.  As well as plenty of music but sounded familiar, but still uniquely not.  It all had the kind of captivating flare you find when exposed to the previously unknown.  Cuban pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa spun a whole new interpretation of what virtuosity can sound like simply by encasing it in musical influences rooted in Cuban soil.  Joined by horn, guitar and drums, his quartet, dressed in casual street cloths and sporting smiles that kept growing as they played, performed with the kind of personal joy you expect to find in an off the record, let’s just have a blast jam session.  It made the music, with that ever-present thread of Cuban something, sparkle like brilliant sequins. Lopez- Nussa, whose playing acumen has been recognized internationally, has a breathtaking performance style that his band members complemented with ease.  Grand, life rich music played with masterful abandon, Van Van Meets New Orleans was one song that made no effort to hide its hybrid essence. 

Like Roscoe Mitchell, Bobby Carcasses is an octogenarian who might as well be 30.  Creative art seems to ooze from their pores, preserving them in some amber of the aesthetic; making them musical Sequoias. Carcasses however is much more the entertainer.  As well as being versatile in his playing skills, he’s also a vocalist well acquainted with the festive and music that celebrates life.  Moving from a drum solo to an ensemble setting where he did a turn at the piano before heading for the microphone, he changed musical shape at will.  Influenced by jazz greats from Stan Getz to Ella Fitzgerald and at home in a wide range of global musical styles, Thursday night saw him ensconced in a party vibe reminiscent of the late mid-century when the music was ebulliently vibrant and joyfully dance forward.

Probably the most beautiful music of the night was burrowed in the middle of the show where two maestros of the drum got together for a rapturous duet with their instruments.  Hamid Drake, along with fellow Chicagoan Michael Zerang, proved why they’re considered among the “best percussionist(s) in improvised music”.  It was impossible to tell where their instruments were made, Cuba or Africa.  But they were hand held and had the look of timelessness.  And they each possessed a myriad of voices that Drake and Zerang teased, coaxed and enticed out with the skill of snake charmers. Sometimes music would rush out as if in rapid conversation and sometimes it would simmer in whispers and insinuation.  It all ran deep in time and had the texture of a language that preceded anyone’s alphabet.  Intuitively known and infinitely mysterious, it couldn’t help but transfix and excite.  These were sounds that could be understood anywhere in the world.  The kind of music without borders that Hothouse has been nurturing for decades.

For more information about the festival, visit https://hothouse.net/