Take It To The Bridge

Taking it to the streets…

aving first met in their native Cuba, guitarists Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas and Eduardo Martín knew immediately that their approaches to playing were in perfect harmony.

And that they shared an expansive sense of freedom when it came to the music that they played.

Their latest show, The Bridge, brings together classical, rock, son montunos, old Yoruba chants, feelgood rumbas, funk-boleros and whatever-you’re-having-yourself.

Coming to The Whale on Sunday, April 24th at 4pm, we asked the duo where their love of the guitar was first sparked, and who their Cuban musical heroes are…

Eduardo Martín
When I was six or seven years old, one of my aunties gave me a toy guitar. Coincidentally my older brother gave me a harmonica around the same time. I enjoyed the sound of both instruments and started playing melodies by ear from popular radio or tv channels. It was great fun to do that, and I used to spend hours looking for the right notes.

Ahmed Dickinson
I come from a family of music lovers; my father had a vast collection of world music LPs that he gathered while living in the USSR. My mother is very creative and has always had artistic abilities; she writes poems, sings, dances and acts.
It was my mum who discovered that I had musical inclinations. She realised that I always cried on Sunday afternoons when a programme with spooky music played on TV. I was two years old then. After that, she started taking me to see theatre plays and choirs, and I joined a children’s choir at the age of four.

Omara Portuondo
Omara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuban singer and dancer. A founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d’Aida, Portuondo has collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio Gutiérrez, Juanito Márquez and Chucho Valdés.

Jose Antonio (Ñico) Rojas
Jose Antonio Rojas, a hydraulic engineer by profession, only ever had the bare minimum of music tuition and never learnt how to write his compositions in traditional notated musical form. Ñico’s music is predominantly from the Filin’ era and combines traditional Cuban rhythms and styles with harmonies and melodies deeply penetrated by jazz.

Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida is a Cuban composer, conductor, and classical guitarist. He is a Member of Honour of the International Music Council.

Chucho Valdes
Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, better known as Chucho Valdés, is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Gonzalo Rubalcaba is an Afro-Cuban jazz pianist and composer.

Yilian Cañizares
Yilian Cañizares is a Cuban-Swiss musician who has been described as one of the most incredible talents of the new generation of Cuban musicians.

Alfredo Rodriguez
Alfredo Rodríguez Salicio is a Cuban composer and jazz pianist. Rodríguez’s interest in jazz was stimulated by the annual JoJazz competition for young jazz musicians, where he won an honorable mention in 2003.

Pedrito Martinez
Pedrito Martinez is a Cuban percussionist, drummer, singer, dancer, bandleader, songwriter, composer, and educator. He was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. He is a Cuban Conguero performing classic Cuban Rumbas, Afro-Cuban folkloric and religious music. He is a Santería priest.

Zenaida Romeu
Zenaida Romeu belongs to the third generation of a family of remarkable Cuban musicians. In 1983, she became the first woman to graduate in orchestral direction from the Higher Institute of Art of Cuba.

Daymé Arocena
Daymé Arocena is an Afro-Cuban jazz singer from Havana, who has been described as Cuba’s “finest young female singer”. She won the 2015 Juno Award for the best jazz album, as a member of the jazz band Maqueque performing with Canadian musician Jane Bunnett.

Ahmed Dickinson and Eduardo Martin bring The Bridge to The Whale on Sunday, April 24th, further info here.