Pianist Dayramir Gonzalez opens Cuban music series in the U.S.

The cycle on Cuban music in the U.S. capital had an excellent opening with pianist Dayramir Gonzalez, an exponent of the vitality of the young generation of Afro-Cuban jazz.
 
The composer, arranger and producer, also managed to win over a knowledgeable audience at the historic Blues Jazz Alley, where he delighted them with adaptations of Cuban music classics and also promoting his most recent album.

In addition, Gonzalez recommended the audience to be part of the Jazz Plaza de La Habana, which in January 2025 will be four decades old.

The musician’s performance, also part of the celebration of Hispanic Heritage, is the first of several presentations in this popular space in the capital on the Cuban Culture celebrations, until October 20.

The Wall Street Journal said of the New York-based artist that he is “an incredibly talented composer and arranger” and in the opinion of Fox News Latino, his interpretation “sounds as if it makes the mind travel on an epic journey… A type of music that suggests a whimsical romantic entanglement.”

Havana-born Dayramir Gonzalez began his professional career, aged 16, as a pianist and composer with the Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Diakara, led by Irakere’s former great singer and percussionist Oscar Valdes, who died in Cuba on October 19, 2023.

Since winning the JoJazz festival in his hometown in 2004 and 2005, he won three Cubadisco awards for his 2007 debut album “Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé”, and the “Presidential Scholarship” from the Berklee College of Music, according to reviews on his official website.

The pianist has performed with Cuban music legends, such as Chucho and Bebo Valdes and his name has topped the bill at New York’s iconic Carnegie Hall.