Dayramir González is a Cuban jazz pianist based in New York. He brings Cuban Yoruba soul into jazz.
Dayramir González in New York City
Jamaica, Queens
Dayramir González plays Cuban jazz piano solo, in a performance with violinist Concetta Abbate and Uruguayan-Brazilian pianist Santiago Beis, followed by conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner Tania León and Composers Now; at the Queens Public Library at Central, in Jamaica, Queens; on Saturday, November 9, 2024, at 2pm. FREE. 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇺🇾
Upper West Side, Manhattan
Dayramir González joins Faraj Abyad and Ensemble in “A Tribute to Fairuz & Classical Poetry;” in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater at Symphony Space in Manhattan’s Upper West Side; on Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 7pm. From $40. 🇨🇺
Islamic poetry is very beautiful. Many Americans know the eloquence of Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet. “The wound is the place where The Light enters you.”
Mother Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America have some Arab roots because Arabs ran the Monsoon trade with India, Africa’s coastal trade, and the Sahara caravan trade, so Islam and other Arab traditions rooted in Africa. African Muslims were trafficked to the Americas during the Colonial Era. There have since been Arab migrations, mostly from Lebanon and Palestine. We know Afro-Caribbeans who speak Arabic because they were taught to pray at home. The pandereta hand drum used so lovingly in Puerto Rican plena music was originally an Arab drum. Arab traditions are absolutely part of American Latin heritage.
Tarab is a form of traditional Arab music. Taarab is a form of Tanzanian and Kenyan music. The word means “to enjoy music.” Swahili; the language of Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania; is a Bantu language with lots of Arab loanwords. Even the word “Swahili” is derived from “Swahili,” the Arab word for coasts. The diana cry that starts many salsa songs is a call to the Yoruba orisha Eleguá, or the Muslim God Allah, as in “E-le-le, le-le-le, A-la-la, la-la-la-la.” We are all mixes of each other.
New York City Venues
- Chelsea Table and Stage
- David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
- Drom
- Flushing Town Hall
- Havana Film Festival New York
- Ideal Glass Atrium
- Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater
- Minton’s Playhouse
- National Sawdust
- Symphony Space
Dayramir González
The Cuban jazz pianist and composer puts New York, Cuba, and Nigeria in his music. That’s jazz.
He was a teenage star in Cuba who started out with Oscar Valdes’ (Irakere) Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble Diákara. Dayramir won Havana’s JoJazz Festival in 2004 and 2005, and three Cubadisco Awards for his 2007 debut album “Dayramir & Habana enTRANCé.”
His latest recording is “The Grand Concourse”(2018) which refers to the great boulevard of The Bronx, the heart of Latin culture in New York City.
Information
Facebook @DayramirGonzalez
Instagram @dayramirgonzalez_piano