What does a painting by Wifredo Lam sound like? In Havana, to Afro-Cuban jazz

What does a painting by Wifredo Lam sound like?

How to translate into music the emotional experience and inspiration produced by contemplating a work of art?

And perhaps even more important, how can jazz and its creative freedom build bridges between diverse arts and open the minds of young composers and students?

That's what the incredible adventure undertaken in Havana last week by saxophonist Ted Nash, a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and winner of several Grammy awards, is about.

The famous North American musician participated in the 38th edition of the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana, which this year was once again a luxury and had a great level, with almost a hundred concerts and the reunion of the public with notable Cuban musicians who have made their careers in USA or Europe and returned to perform in their country.

Against this backdrop, in an impressive collaborative environment, with the participation of musicians from more than 20 countries (many of them top-level North Americans, such as pianist Aaron Goldberg or trombonist Steve Turre) on stage with their colleagues Cubans and improvising concerts on the fly, playing with each other with the strength of Cuban music at the center of everything, Ted Nash arrived in Havana without any divisiveness, humble, and one of those projects that mark.

Jazz x Art, which is the name of the workshop he gave in Cuba, began on Tuesday in the Cuban art room, where the works of the avant-garde and the great transitory exhibition

are exhibited .

The participants, 15 young music students from the National School of Art, had to first tour the space with their instrument and select a painting that would move them inside.

Your teachers too.

Each one chose a work and, in front of the painting, they improvised what they felt with Nash's instruction that from that idea they should compose music for the group and work on it together for five days.

So did their teachers.

Concert by Ted Nash and music students at the Museum of Fine Arts after concluding the Jazz x Art workshop, last Saturday. Julio Larramendi

Yesiney Pérez, clarinet in hand, stood in front of

, by René Portocarrero;

Gabriela Muriedas did her own with her trumpet before

, by Fidelio Ponce de León;

and Josué Borges improvised on

de Lam.

The art room was filled with music, feeling, colors and heart, and Nash, moved and turned into a student himself, accompanied the young people in their search for him.

A marvel.

Each one chose freely, also Nash, admirer of Lam.

“She has it all: incredible technique, a beautiful sense of color, and most importantly, imagination.

Imagination is the key to everything that is creative.

It is the imaginative freedom in Lam's work that I hope to be able to embrace in my own musical work,” he explained.

From that moment on, the group moved to the room where the works of the great Cuban painter are exhibited and a delirious and frenetic rehearsal workshop was set up there, led by Nash and supported by the pianist Alejandro Falcón, the drummer Ruy López- Nussa, the bassist Arnulfo Guerra, the saxophonist Alejandro Calzadilla and the clarinetist Janio Abreu, head of the chair where the young people study.

One of the essays in the transitory room where the exhibition 'Wifredo Lam indivisible' is exhibited, last week. Julio Larramendi

Surrounded by art, helped by Nash and the experience of their teachers and these professional musicians, for five days the kids —who had never composed before— worked on their ideas as a team and achieved a miracle: 14 songs of the most diverse styles, including Afro-Cuban jazz, boleros, neo

, son montuno and even North American

, many of them with

arrangements , which they presented to the public in the museum patio on the weekend on a magical afternoon, one of those that are not forgotten.

Nash and Cathy Barbash, the independent North American producer, tell us that they conceived and obtained the financing to carry out the project six years ago and that they held a similar workshop in China coinciding with a great exhibition of the painter Rauschenberg in the Asian country.

“It was a great experience, but this has exceeded all expectations.

In China they are very good technically, but closed when it comes to improvising.

Here the talent is immense, everything has flowed in an incredible way”, said Nash, confessing that the experience for him has been impressive.

Concert at the Museum of Fine Arts at the end of the workshop, with the improvisation of dancers from the Malpaso group. Julio Larramendi

“Music from the Afro-Cuban tradition blends incredibly well with jazz.

We are soul brothers and sisters.

It is important that we use the arts to continue making these connections and generate goodwill,” said the saxophonist, who in 2010 traveled to Havana with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Orchestra and offered five legendary concerts for the Cuban public and students.

Nash defends art as a source of inspiration for music and remembers how he discovered it when he was only 10 years old and was moved by a Chagall painting in the Guggenheim Museum.

“I let this fantastic image take me on a journey.

It was at that moment, more than 50 years ago, that I first understood the transformative power of art.

Great art can make your imagination come alive.

Ted Nash during his presentation on Sunday with the Cuadentro group at the Cuban Art Factory. Julio Larramendi

Being already a professional, Nash has been seduced by works by Picasso, Dalí, Monet or Jackson Pollock, which have made him fly and have become sheet music.

The students of the National School of Art who participated in the workshop have now experienced something similar.

They say the experience has changed their minds and opened up new horizons.

And that's what it was about, "inspiring them to cultivate new areas of their own creativity and expression," according to the American saxophonist and flutist.

Last Sunday, after Jazz x Art concluded, in the presence of his students, Nash appeared with Falcón and his group at the Cuban Art Factory.

Of course, the repertoire chosen and rehearsed in a few days included Afro-Cuban jazz, but also classics by Coltrane, Chic Corea or Jim Hall that Nash adores and has covered.

Perfect balance.

And above, Lam enjoying.