Roberto Fonseca is one of those individuals for whom you can understand why life brought them into this world at this particular time, place, and within this family. The pianist, singer, multi-instrumentalist, writer and producer was born in 1975 in La Havana to a family of Cuban artists. 

The prodigious artist first appeared on stage at the age of 15 during the La Havana Jazz Festival, a festival he took the reins of 26 years later (succeeding the previous artistic director and music great Chucho Valdés). Roberto was a great architect in opening up Cuban music, while staying true to its musical heritage, by pursuing a Master’s degree in music composition at the highly respected Instituto Superior de Arte. Following a tour of Italy, he went on to record his first solo album Tiene que ver, before becoming the junior virtuoso and ever-the-joker of the Buena Vista Social Club. This new fire set him on course to travel the world at breakneck speed, working alongside legends such as Ibrahim Ferrer and eternal diva Omara Portuondo.

At the pinnacle of his career, Roberto Fonseca unveils La Gran Diversión, a tribute to Cuban music’s golden era, wild nights in La Havana and to Cabane Cubaine Paris’ most famous cabaret of the ’30s : a truly unique experience poured into an album enhanced by the accompanying live performance where Fonseca’s audacity is combined with an orchestra on par with the Buena Vista‘s. It’s a subtle blend of tradition inherited from his musical training working alongside the greats, his unparalleled talent and a dash of unbridled modernity.

Whether you are familiar or not with the moves and steps of the Mambo, Rumba or Bolero, the urge to sway to the melodies played by an artist considered to have breathed a new life into Cuban music, will be irresistible.