Roberto Fonseca

A timeless cuban cabaret

The history of Cuban music comes alive when pianist Roberto Fonseca takes the stage with his orchestra. Their concerts are events filled with dance, atmosphere and stellar musicianship. Fonseca was born into a musical family and made a name for himself playing with the legendary ensemble Buena Vista Social Club during the first half of the 2000s. Through countless collaborations and records, he has become a central figure in the renewal of Cuban music, from hip-hop to electronica, via soul, funk and latin jazz. But even though he has pushed the envelope during his entire career, his connection to the extraordinary musical heritage of the island remains strong. 

In his current live performances, he looks back towards the golden age of Cuban music. Roberto Fonseca seeks to restore the decor and the bubbling atmosphere of the Cabane Cubaine, a cabaret where the whole of Paris in the 1930s came to dance the mambo, the rhumba or the salsa. The concerts are a festive and immersive journey through time. His band dresses the part, and are armed to the teeth with intoxicating hits from Cuba’s jazz age. It is an orchestra worthy of the Cotton Club or Buena Vista, musical reconstruction perfected to the last detail. But more than treating the music as a museum piece, Fonseca’s all-consuming love for his heritage shows that these songs still breathe, close to a century after their inception.