The History of Cuban Music: African & Spanish Music Influence in Cuba with Hugo Cruz and Caminos at Alphabet City - Northside

The concert’s featured guest artists are percussionist Pedro Jose Gutierrez del Rio and dancer Elianys Karla Pérez Peña.

Featured Musicians:

Akin Lowman: bata drums; Thomas Chatman: bata drums; Brian Stahurski: bass; Michael Bernabe: piano; Frank DiDiano: guitar; Mike Tomaro: saxophone

Live and Online

Aaron J Johnson, Charles Mingus

Aaron J. Johnson is Assistant Professor and Interim Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh where he studies and teaches jazz, funk, film music, and MIR (music information retrieval). He studies social aspects of how music is produced, organized, and presented, the efforts of musicians to counter powerful institutional forces, and how musicians use media of all kinds. A professional jazz musician born and raised in Washington, D.C. during the apex of the Chocolate City era, he has electrical engineering degrees from Carnegie Mellon (BSEE) and Georgia Tech (MS) and a PhD in Music from Columbia University. He plays trombone, tuba, bass clarinet, and conch shells.