Just Added: Zenen Zeferino Huervo to open program
CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–July 11, 2017. HotHouse is Chicago’s premiere presenter of arts and culture from the island of Cuba. Saturday August 5, HotHouse presents Septeto Santiaguero, the foremost son music ensemble on the current Cuban scene.
Founded in 1995 by tres guitar virtuoso Fernado Dewar, Septeto has recorded 8 records in their two decade history. Their most recent release, Tributu a Los Compadres, is a collaboration with Jose ‘El Canario’ Alberto and was blessed with a 2016 Grammy nomination in the Tropical Latin category and a 2015 Latin Grammy win. This current tour supports their new cd No Queiro Llanto – Tributo a Los Compadres expected to be released this summer.
The band began their career performing in a small restaurant in Santiago de Cuba known for showcasing traditional music. “It’s a place that came about spontaneously, where the musicians would meet and sing,” Dewer says. “Over the years, it developed a schedule, but it never lost its spontaneous character or its relationship to the musicians. “To this day, La Casa de la Trova is the reference for traditional music in Santiago.”
While in Havana, there can be found a mix of Cuban and Latin music, from salsa to reggaetón, in Santiago de Cuba, traditional son, bolero and trova dominate the music scene. “I think that if we lived in another place, we wouldn’t have all the elements that we need, all the influences of Santiago,” says Dewer.”Cuba is a musical island, but Santiago stands out because of the diversity of genres that are preserved there. And you can see those manifestations in theaters, restaurants and in the streets, constantly. That people go to the concerts and communicate with us. We’re not a calm septet. We are a septet that moves around the stage. We have choreographies. The musicians improvise. We are a septet that defends traditional music through a more contemporary perspective.”
“Septeto Santiaguero brings that energy with them everywhere they go. For two decades, they have toured in Europe and Latin America, preforming in Spain, Colombia, Germany, France, Mexico and Brazil. For Dewer, expanding their music into the American market has been an important step. ” Performing in the United States has always been a goal. I think not only for us, but to any artist,” The group performed for the first time in the United States at the Lincoln Center in 2016 and this year were one of the crowd favorites in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
This will be their Chicago debut.
The concert at Martyrs’ is part of HotHouse’s Global Voices Series – a project affiliated the 6th annual Encuentro de Jaraneros. The Encuentro is a traditional gathering of folkloric artists in Mexico. Musicians in Chicago with their roots in Mexican culture have organized these events to present indigenous artists from Veracruz, to host workshops and educational events and to share artistic practices across geographical locations.
As part of this endeavor, Zenen Zeferino Huervo will open the first program at Martyrs’.
Zenen Zeferino Huervo is a jarana player, singer, composer, and poet from Veracruz, Mexico. Born in a family of traditional musicians, Mr. Zeferino Huervo has been one of the major figures in the field of son jarocho (the traditional music of Veracruz) and is largely responsible for reviving the genre in contemporary performance and recording after it had almost disappeared during the 1960s and 1970s. Zeferino Huervo’s musical training comes from the environment in which he grew up. From an early age he ventured into poetic improvisation, which is a common art in the state of Veracruz. As such, he has developed a particular style of singing, playing, and improvising, which has made him one of the most important figures of traditional musical expression in Mexico. Currently, Mr. Zeferino is spending time in New York City as part of an artistic residency with local group Radio Jarocho.
Tickets and Additional Information
Doors: Open at 7 p.m. Concert begins at 8 p.m.
Location: Martyrs’ 3855 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
Tickets: $25
Tickets available: www.hothouse.net and: www.martyrslive.com
Venue web-site: www.martyrslive.com
Presenter Web-site: www.hothouse.net
ABOUT HOTHOUSE
HotHouse was founded in 1987 to provide a forum for expression in the arts that was under-represented elsewhere in the Chicago cultural community. It was created primarily to curate multi-arts and educational activities that bolstered the prominence of innovative artists working in the margins of the commercial market and to facilitate events that amplified a variety of progressive social movements. The New York Times wrote of HotHouse “few clubs anywhere offer a wider range of first-rate world music, from wildly vibrant Afro-pop to avant-garde jazz than HotHouse.” And a “Best of Chicago” award opined “from European avant-garde jazz acts that don’t even play in this hemisphere to performance art to world music to the city’s more esoteric acts, [HotHouse] has consistently pulled in some of the planet’s most innovative acts.”
For two decades the organization maintained two award-winning cultural centers where it presented its programs-the first catalyzed growth in the Wicker Park neighborhood (1987-1995) and the second spurred development in the South Loop in downtown Chicago (1995-2007). The board of directors is currently pursuing plans to build its third site.
HotHouse develops its programs in response to a variety of community needs and seeks to extend the milieu of the academy and position high caliber (and international) arts innovation before underserved populations throughout the Chicago metropolitan region.
The GLOBAL VOICES SERIES is supported in part by a grant from the Reva and David Logan Foundation
Source: www.hothouse.net
