Roberto Fonseca

A keyboard and percussion prodigy, Cuban Roberto Fonseca (b. Havana, March 29, 1975) studied music extensively before performing with the group Temperamento (1999-2004) and joining Buena Vista Social Club's second line-up. Combining the excessiveness of Cuban rhythms with hip-hop and classical music in his albums Elengo (2001) and Zamazu (2007), he has since become a major figure on the Latin jazz scene. After Akokan (2009), his festival tour led to the CD/DVD Live in Marciac, released in 2010. In 2012, the album Yo invites Cuban, African and European musicians to the same table. On the tour that followed, documented on the album At Home: Live in Marciac (2015), Roberto Fonseca teamed up with Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. He then returns to his Afro-Cuban fundamentals on Abuc (anagram of Cuba, 2016), within a brassy septet, then invites Ibrahim Maalouf, Danay Suarez, Gema 4 and Joe Lovano to collaborate on Yesun (2019). In 2023, he presents an anthology of Cuba's musical wealth on La Gran Diversión.