The festival also gathers expatriate Cuban musicians. They include Xiomara Laugart, a singer from Havana who is now a member of Yerba Buena, at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center on April 30, and the rapper Telmary Diaz at BAMCafé on April 23. The pianist Arturo O'Farrill, who leads the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, brings his Family Band to BAMCafé on April 30, and on May 14 at Symphony Space the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra will be the centerpiece of Wall to Wall Sonidos, a marathon of Latin music featuring the premiere of O'Farrill's composition "A Still Small Voice." With luck, the festival's many multidisciplinary offerings will also give the music something it has rarely had in New York: a context.
Flags flailed - both by the breeze and by the hands of proud people - to the live onstage musical performances. The stage was set large enough to support a full band and back-up singers, and to support the energy of every performer. The program included several international, big time and small time, artists. Some on the bill were reggae star Tony Rebel, (reggae, Jamaica); Bunji Garlin (Soca, Trinidad); Ken Boothe (Vintage Reggae, Jamaica); Slice International (Soca/Calypso band); Everton Blender (Cultural Reggae, Jamaica); Dadou Pasquet (Kompas, Haiti); Omar Reid (Jamaica's 2006 Festival Song winner) and Dias and the Charms (R&B).
