HAR Late: A Night In Havana

A Night In Havana returns to Howard Assembly Room for a Leeds Jazz Festival special. Once again, DJ Lubi has curated a fantastic night of live Cuban music (with another great London Cuban band), alongside Cuban dance and the DJ after-party. Add in the venue’s excellent daiquiri Cuban cocktails and we really do give you a proper taste of “a night in Havana” without the ten hour flight!

Eliane Correa & La Evolución is a fresh, high-energy Cuban timba fusion orchestra consisting of some of the top Cuban and Latin musicians in the UK. Coming to Leeds for the first time as a 9 piece to perform a repertoire specifically curated for the occasion, they will be sprinkling some Cuban timba and songo classics by Havana D’Primera, Los Van Van and Issac Delgado into their usual original repertoire of female-fronted contemporary firing timba compositions (timba is a high-energy, modern Cuban music genre that evolved from traditional son Cubano, incorporating heavy funk plus jazz, rap and Afro-Cuban folkloric influences).

Latina powerhouse pianist and composer Eliane Correa is one of the key representatives of Cuban music and culture in the UK. Aside from curating the London Latin Jazz Fest for almost a decade, her CV includes being musical director for the likes of singer Mayito Rivera from Los Van Van (seen at HAR in summer 2024), Dutch salsa trumpet star Maite Hontelé, and writing extensively for Cuban singer Mixael Cabrera. Alongside this, she tours regularly with film composer Hans Zimmer as a soloist, as well as with Elli Ingram, Desta French and other pop-jazz crossover artists. Fresh from selling out two back-to-back shows at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, La Evolución regularly headline the Latino stage at Glastonbury Festival. The orchestra released their debut album, Signo de Fuego, at the beginning of 2022 (Somos Más Records), earning a 5-star review in Songlines Magazine, and a 4-star one in Jazzwise Magazine.

The powerful yet intricately woven arranging style of Correa’s timba-based repertoire lets the listener dance to the groove without letting go of any of the compositional complexities of timba music, even nodding occasionally to soul and reggae music plus modern jazz pianists such as Robert Glasper and Herbie Hancock. Since La Evolución is one of (if not the) only large-format timba orchestras in the world that is led by a woman, with a mixed gender and majority Cuban line-up, Correa’s lyrics make a point of highlighting the female perspective. The repertoire will also include – for one night only – a generous dose of timba anthems from all eras alongside original songs.

Doors are 7.00pm. As always, there’s an early doors Cuban salsa dance class at 7.45pm with resident teachers Yersin and Dahi. The band is onstage at 9pm, and Yersin will also be DJing all through the night playing the best classic and new son Cubano, timba and salsa Cubana.

Book standing tickets for dancing/dance class, or upstairs seated tickets if just wishing to watch the concert.

A Howard Assembly Room & DJ Lubi Presents Promotion. In association with Leeds Jazz Festival.