Mezcla

Mezcla is a music group from Cuba.

Mezcla has been a part of the soundtrack of the Cuban music scene for the past twenty-five years. The ensemble has constantly reinvented itself, highlighting its members' musical strengths and interests. A multigenerational ensemble, Mezcla brings together several veteran masters with some the best of young jazz players on the scene today.

Mezcla was featured in the Smithsonian Institution's documentary on Latin Jazz La Combinacion Perfecta.

The band has participated in festivals throughout Europe, Latin America and the US. They play several times each month at Havana’s legendary jazz club La Zorra y el Cuervo and the jam sessions they have hosted there are legendary, including such luminaries as Chucho Valdés, Roy Hargrove, Dafnis Prieto, George Benson, Yosvany Terry, Orlando Sanchez, Wynton Marsalis, Felipe Cabrera, Giovanni Hidalgo and Steve Coleman, to mention just a few who have dropped in during the Havana Jazz Festival (Jazz Plaza) or almost any night.

In 1993 Carlos Santana said Mezcla was “the cleanest, freshest water I have ever tasted.” They have a number of recordings under their belt, the latest with an international street date of January 2010 on the Zoho label entitled “See You in C-U-B-A.”

Auturo O'Farrill has this to say about Mezcla: "...those who think Cuban music fits in a cigar box, who have Buena Vista vision and who think that Cuban music is only Salsa, Timba, or Mambo [...] will be surprised by the incredible fluidity with which these musicians float between genres and worlds".

In a recent review of Mezcla's latest Cd, Raul d’Gama Rose of All About Jazz said

I'll See You in Cuba is an extraordinary celebration of Cuba's dance and song. It is a fiercely vivid account of a culture infused with the most electrifying elements of Afro-Caribbean heritage. As a musical odyssey it holds its own with the very best of Irakere and the Buena Vista Social Club. Pablo Menéndez and the wonderful musicians of Mezcla set the world alight with a ravishing blend of blues, soul, and jazz idioms that collide with the son, guaracha, guajira, bolero, and danzon. These they grind into a fine mixture of pure joy and unforgettable musical ecstasy. [...] This is music that will echo with excitement long after its last notes [...] have died down.

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Wikipedia