Angel Gastón Joya Perellada

Cuban double bass player. Qualified as one of the young promises of current Cuban music, representing a link between concert music and popular music, traversing diverse alternative styles and genres.

The enthusiasm he communicates in his musical performance contrasts with the equanimity and simplicity with which he transmits his ideas. That is, until the lights go out and he takes up the bass, then his body merges with the neck and the strings.

His numerous collaborations with jazz musicians from Cuba and abroad, as well as his spectacular virtuosity and willingness to venture into the fusion of different genres, have earned him a place among the great exponents of current Cuban music.

A native of Guanabacoa, he began playing double bass as a child, imitating his father, Gastón Joya Riverón. He later studied cello in school and at age 10 he dedicated himself to bass rigorously. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana in the specialty of Double Bass.

He was a student of professor Orlando "Cachaíto" López, who taught him so much about music, as he was considered the vanguard of double bass in our country. After those initial moments of his training, he had the privilege of playing alongside many brilliant musicians such as those from Buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo, Leo Brower and Chucho Valdés, who welcomed him into his band for seven years. He also discovered much Cuban music while paradoxically outside of Cuba, with artists who had left the Island many years ago, but who continue to be an important part of his repertoire. All of them contributed in different ways to his formation and traced the path he has traveled up to now.

He has obtained several awards in competitions, including the Jojazz award, an international event presided over by Chucho Valdés.

He has shared the stage with personalities such as Claude Abbado and the Latin American Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, the Brussels Philharmonic alongside musicians of the caliber of Ernán López-Nussa, José María Vitier, Frank Fernández, Miriam Ramos, Omara Portuondo, Leo Brouwer, Chucho Valdés, Grupo Síntesis, Mark Levine, Dave Murray, Gilles Peterson, Sting, among others.

He has been part of phonographic productions, not only as an instrumentalist but also as a composer and arranger, alongside different figures. Similarly, he has participated in multiple festivals, master classes and concerts in Europe, North America and Latin America.

Gastón has expressed: "For me melody is very important, melody is what distinguishes us, it is speaking, how to transmit something, a message. Nothing, my instrument is the bass, because my father was a double bass player. That's what I saw in my house. My father was a student of Cachao, I was too. My great influence is Cachaíto, that's what we are defending, each in our own style".

Awards

Jojazz Interpretation Competitions, 2006, Minor Category.
Cubadisco Award for Gastón Joya, 2014, Prima Category.
2017
Distinction for National Culture.
As a member of Maestro Chucho Valdés' band and Afrocuban Messengers, with which he recorded the album Border Free, he was nominated for a Grammy award in 2011.
Mama Ina achieved recognition as the best Jazz album in the Cubadisco 2018 competition.

Discography

Gastón Joya (2013)
Mama Ina (2019) alongside The New Cuban Trio made up of Gastón Joya, Marcos Morales (drums) and Adrián Estévez (piano). Released under the Unicornio label of Producciones Abdala, the phonogram is an intimate album, dedicated to his grandmother, made by and for the family. Collaboration with Alfredo Rodríguez (piano), Julito Padrón (trumpet), Nam Sam Fong on guitar and Manuel Vázquez on sound and mixing.