The Detroit Jazz Festival has been one of the best experiences in my career. I had the great pleasure to represent Berklee.

It was five days of many intense moments. The opening jam session on Friday we shared the stage with many young jazz musicians with the high point of playing with Horacio el Negro Hernandez and Pedrito Martinez.

On Saturday, I presented a workshop, in which young students from art schools participated. It was an interesting experience for me to see how they adapted and interpreted the polyrhythm of Cuban music. The evening came with a lot of joy and I had a great eagerness to present officially for the first time in the US, in concert, Dayramir and Habana enTRANCE. I am grateful to Edmar Colon, Carlos Averhoff, Zach Brown, Roberto Giaquinto and Marcos Torres, incredible musicians who were able to learn and internalize all my music and interpret it with mastery while delivering it with a unique energy to the public.

Sunday was the day I got to meet and share some moments with Paquito D’Rivera, a legend in Cuba with a lifetime of music.

The last day of the festival, I rehearsed and performed in the evening with the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra where I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Anat Cohen, Regina Carter and Christian McBride, a great person on and off the stage, a person with deep knowledge and understanding and plenty of charisma.

It was a great festival organized well and carried by Michael Borgida. It was a festival that had everything: from really hot weather to really cold, from sunny to rainy, but always a great energy moving around with many great artists like Dave Holland, Antonio Hart, Chris Potter, Ivan Lins, Anat Cohen, Gary Burton, Christian McBride, Regina Carter, Joe Lovano and many others.

The greatest moment from the festival was the amazing reception that Habana enTRANCE received from the public. It was truly a pleasure for me to present to everyone, the young spirit of Cuban jazz.

Dayramir Gonzalez

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