Havana (AFP)

At 15, he already amazed the public at the Havana jazz festival: on the occasion of a new edition of the musical meeting, pianist Roberto Fonseca confides to AFP on his ninth album, which he will present in March in Paris.

"I consider myself a crazy, passionate, romantic musician, with the piano as an extension of the body to convey my feelings," said the former troublemaker of the Buena Vista Social Club, during a rehearsal in a cramped room at the back of the house. 'a Havana apartment.

The Cuban capital is organizing its 35th jazz festival until Sunday, of which Roberto Fonseca is now the artistic director. He will share the stage with his accomplice Omara Portuondo for a concert event on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the singer of Buena Vista.

Eternal black hat screwed on the head, Roberto, whose great part of the career took place in France, obstinately refuses to enter the boxes: "One day someone asked Miles Davis what his style was, he replied + give it the name you want +, that's how I feel. "

Raised in a family of musicians, between a drummer father and a mother dancer at the Tropicana club then singer of boleros, he is now 44 years old.

He remembers that "there was always a lot of music at home, and always different styles, from classical music to rock, without any problems".

The result? "In my way of playing, of composing, we feel that there is a lot of classical music, there is rumba, sound (basic rhythm of salsa, editor's note), hip-hop, jungle ... There is everything!"

As a child, he started on drums at four, before going on to the piano at eight. After a very remarkable first performance in 1991 at the Havana jazz festival, he recorded his first album in 1998 then joined in 2001 the Buena Vista Social Club, a famous training of Cuban veterans of which he looked like a crazy young dog for five years.

- "Free and always daring" -

Accustomed to presenting his albums first abroad, Roberto Fonseca changed his strategy with the ninth, "Yesun", unveiled on the island in October: "This time I wanted to do things differently, I wanted the first concert to take place in Cuba to have the blessing of my audience. "

A way of remembering the lessons of his old friends from the Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer (who died in 2005) and Omara Portuondo: "they always advised me not to forget where I am", but also "d 'be free and always daring'.

On Kachucha, one of the 12 titles of "Yesun" - mixture of the names of two deities of the santeria, the Afro-Cuban cult which "is part of me", confides Roberto -, one hears him besides humming " De Cuba yo soy "(I'm from Cuba).

An album where he combines traditional Cuban rhythms, electronic sounds and the essential piano, which he plays on stage in an exalted manner, as if he were possessed.

In the studio, he surrounded himself with prestigious guests like the American saxophonist Joe Lovano, the Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf or the Cuban rapper Danay Suarez, but also his mother, Mercedes Cortés, who participated in the choirs of certain songs .

In the coming weeks, the album will be played in a series of concerts in the United States and will cross the Atlantic for a presentation at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, on March 24: "We are very happy, very excited by this concert because it's a very prestigious room. "

Between Roberto Fonseca and France, it's a love story that has lasted for a long time: "I feel really grateful to the French public, and France in general, because it is the first country to have opened its doors in my music".

Recurring guest of the Jazz in Marciac festival, in the south-west of France, he was recently decorated by Paris with the insignia of an officer of the Arts and Letters.

© 2020 AFP