Musicians use their art as a gateway to better relations between the U.S. and Cuba

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: The future path of Cuba has been in the headlines lately. Can music be the gateway to closer relations between Americans and Cubans and help provide relief amid the economic downturn and isolation?

That’s the hope of a group of high-profile musicians who’ve been forging a bond between young students on and off the island.

Jeffrey Brown has the first of three reports from Havana for our Canvas coverage and Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy.

Jeffrey Brown : On a rooftop under the stars in Havana, the sounds of a youthful New Orleans brass band, followed by those of Cuban teens, members of a group called Primera Linea. meaning First Line, named after the famous second line musical tradition in New Orleans.

A battle of the bands? Not really. More a blast of joy and connections.

Daniela Hernandez, Musician (through interpreter ): Every time we hear them, we learn about their music, because we like learning about that culture, and it helps us teach them about what we do so they can learn as well.

Kennedy Jackson, Musician: They’re just so energetic, and they’re very passionate about it, and that’s what I really love. I like to see people who are passionate about what they do, doing what they love, like how I do.

Jeffrey Brown : A connector in chief of this four-day gathering, Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty, a Grammy-winning international star who fuses jazz, punk and more.

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Musician: Some of these kids’ music is life. When I come here, it’s the same thing as New Orleans. What they play is life here.

You can hear the culture. You can hear the struggle. You can hear the pain and the happiness through that music.

Jeffrey Brown : We first met Andrews seven years ago in New Orleans to learn of how he got his nickname — he started out as a child, a shorty, playing in the streets of the famed Treme neighborhood — of his commitment to music and to his Trombone Shorty Foundation, an after-school program offering local students music and life lessons.

As a 12-year-old himself, he’d had the opportunity to come to Cuba as part of a cultural exchange program, a formative experience.

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: This place and the music has never left me since that day in 1998, since that trip. And my goal was to always be able to come back because it had that major of an impact on me at that young age, very impressionable age, that it never left me.

Jeffrey Brown : Five years ago, he began bringing student musicians from the foundation to Havana to play for and interact with students here. That’s now grown into an event called Getting Funky in Havana, an exchange in music and broader culture for the young musicians, for a group of American music lovers basking in the chance to visit Cuba, and for Cuban fans attending a series of outdoor concerts.

Participating all along the way, stars like legendary blues man Taj Mahal, soaking in the performances of the young Cubans, and later performing at an old Havana church, before joining a panel discussion that included the Funkadelic master himself George Clinton.

George Clinton, Musician: And as a songwriter, you start employing all those different cultures and different tones and the way we converse with each other.

Jeffrey Brown : Also serving as one of the leaders of this gathering, the rising Cuban superstar Cimafunk, who is seemingly everywhere, performing with the young musicians, taking in a jam at a local school, even walking the runway in a fashion show.

He’s made his name mixing the sounds of Cuban salsa and American funk. And he sees this musical exchange as crucial for young people here.

Cimafunk, Musician: Imagine that you’re a kid in Cuba, for example, or in a country that doesn’t have a lot of resource, and you start to feel that after so many years without connection with all the musicians, with no — nothing about connection, nothing to see some musicians from outside, and you can see how kids are like saying, like, yes, OK, we’re part of the world.

Even if we are here or we’re dealing with things, we’re part of the world, and we can do it, because people believe in us.

Jeffrey Brown : In fact, any highs amid this gathering had to be balanced against the realities of Cuba today, a deeply depressed economy where electrical power shortages have crippled the country, and lines to get gas, money from the bank, and subsidized bread are the norm.

More than a million have left. Official data show a stunning 10 percent drop in population in recent years. Actual numbers are likely higher. And the one-party government is still led by the heirs of Fidel Castro, his image still prominently displayed around Havana.

Mass demonstrations in 2021 protesting the power and other shortages were quickly put down. There’s also the continuing whipsaw of U.S.-Cuban relations. I last visited 10 years ago, soon after President Obama restored diplomatic relations and relaxed strict rules that had kept most Americans from visiting the island.

The grand squares and streets of Old Havana were alive with tourists, spending much-needed dollars. Today, they’re still dancing, but the numbers are way off. Cuban officials say just two million tourists visited in 2024, down from some four million in 2019.

Carmen Laeyre, Shopkeeper (through interpreter): There’s not a lot of tourism. There’s less tourism with the problems that you know already exist. But we’re here. The problem is getting by and supporting oneself.

Jeffrey Brown : The streets are quieter, the cruise ships mostly gone. Even the famous classic cars aren’t doing much cruising. Milton Telles has been driving for 15 years.

Milton Telles, Antique Car Driver: In comparison of the first time, when I start, it’s down. It’s in the floor.

Jeffrey Brown : It’s in the floor?

Milton Telles: Yes, tourists, it’s not a lot of visit. The people complain. I hope it change.

Jeffrey Brown : Since President Trump reversed course on diplomatic ties and sanctions in his first term, strict travel restrictions have applied.

And the back-and-forth continued even in recent days, with outgoing President Biden ending Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, only to have incoming President Trump immediately restore it.

Milton Telles: Everybody is afraid of what Donald Trump can do in his presidential time, because the people is who’s suffering those political issues.

Jeffrey Brown : Against this backdrop, the cultural exchange program focuses on smaller, more manageable goals, including bringing new instruments to Cuban students at a leading music school on Havana’s outskirts.

Crumbling and outdated facilities didn’t diminish the enthusiasm.

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: Some of the instruments are beat up and they’re making the best of it, but I’m no stranger to that. As they’re continuing to play and grow, every year we come back, those kids are phenomenal.

(Crosstalk)

Jeffrey Brown : You can hear the difference?

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: Oh, I definitely hear the difference.

Jeffrey Brown : New Orleans student musicians led a second line parade through the crowd, and players from both countries joined in to perform and dance inside and out.

Fifteen-year-old trombonist Daniela Hernandez lives nearby with her very proud extended family. She’s also a member of the Primera Linea band that performed for the visitors and locals alike.

Daniela Hernandez (through interpreter): When they listen to us, I want them to be like, wow, how delightful, and that they start dancing and enjoy what we do to the fullest, because in the end we do this so they can have fun with us.

Jeffrey Brown : Also in the band, 14-year-old percussionist Hollden Ortiz.

Hollden Ortiz, Musician (through interpreter): It has been my passion since I was small. I dream with the music. I dream with everything I can create when I have a few more years in. I dream of continuing with my music, with other bandmates, with being a great musician.

Jeffrey Brown : That’s a universal dream, of course, and 17-year-old New Orleanian Jarnell Demesme brought along a personal dream of seeing the homeland of his father’s family. He was also getting a taste of being a role model.

Jarnell Demesme, Musician: You can tell they love what they do. They love to play their horn. They love to learn. They love to interact with music with other people. It’s really inspiring, because, if they can look up to me like that at my age now, I can just imagine, even when I grow up, how people will look up to me then, and how I can give back to the community.

Jeffrey Brown : That’s what it’s all about for Trombone Shorty as well, who could be found throughout interacting with young musicians, including them in super-jam performances at major Havana venues.

This kind of cultural exchange, what can it actually accomplish? I mean, we can all have a good time.

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: Yes.

Jeffrey Brown : And we are.

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: Yes.

Jeffrey Brown : But what does it accomplish, do you think, in the end?

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews: We have been able to have a great impact on some of the kids, and, plus, some of the kids that we brought here from New Orleans, they won’t forget this experience.

And hopefully the accomplishments that we’re trying to get out here is helping these kids go to be professional musicians, and they can come back and also have an impact on the next generation to do the same thing, and we can save lives through music.

Jeffrey Brown : Trombone Shorty says he doesn’t know what the future will bring for U.S.-Cuba relations or its impact on the work of his foundation, but he vows to return as often as he can.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown in Havana, Cuba.

Amna Nawz: Terrific story.