Roberto Arturo Carcassés Cuza

Composer and performer of Cuban popular music. He masters almost all musical instruments and is an original singer, also including dance and pantomime in his performances.

He cultivates a style in which he fuses Cuban musical genres, rumba, son, guaracha, with elements from jazz. He worked for many years at the Teatro Musical de La Habana. He currently works as a soloist. Among his most notable works is "Blues-guaguancó".

He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on August 29, 1938. His grandfather was Consul of Cuba in Jamaica at that time. He arrived in Cuba in 1942, and became a Cuban citizen in Camajuaní, Villa Clara.

As a young man he sang Italian songs, opera arias and zarzuelas. He performed as an amateur on the radio station CMHW and his professional debut was at the La Caridad theater in Santa Clara as a guest artist of the great Cuban comedian Enrique Arredondo.

In 1956 he joined Bobby Collazo's vocal quartet. Author of La última noche, beginning to sing popular songs, sones and international repertoire.

In 1958 he made his first trip to New York, with the Tropicana show and Armando Romeu leading the Big Band, at the Waldorf Astoria, on Steve Allen's show. At the Birdland he discovered Buddy Rich and Machito's orchestra. Upon returning to Cuba he began to cultivate jazz, playing bass, drums and singing Scat.

He participated as a delegate at the World Youth Festival in 1959, held in Vienna, Austria, where he traveled with an a capella vocal choir, directed by Nilo Rodríguez and later traveled to the then Soviet Union.

He traveled to Bulgaria where he got married, living in the city of Paris, France. Here he worked with Pacolo and Benny Bennet's orchestra, until 1961. In Paris he met Bud Powell, Kenny Clarck and Lue Bennet, with whom he shared performances. But the most important was the eccentric Cuban trumpeter Pepin Vaillant, who greatly influenced his future work as a showman.

Upon returning to Cuba he was part of the founding group, along with Leo Brouwer, Paquito D'Rivera, Chucho Valdés, Carlos Emilio Morales, and other relevant musicians of the time, of the Teatro Musical de La Habana, an epic of modern theater in Cuba.

After three years training as a musical comedian and performing various contemporary musical theater works, he moved to the Martí theater, sharing his performances with Alicia Rico, Candita Quintana, Carlos Montezuma and Enrique Santiesteban, among other great figures of Cuban theater, with vernacular theater works.

During this period, together with his work at the Martí theater, he continued his life as an athlete (triple jump, high jump and long jump) competing in an indoor high jump competition where he won the gold medal and set a national record.

He left the Martí theater becoming a showman and performing at the now defunct "Nocturnal" cabaret with Obdulio Morales' orchestra. He spent several years working in the best nightclubs in Cuba.

Bobby also worked for a time with Felipe Dulzaides' group playing the bass and with Armando Zequeira's group, playing the Drums.

In 1968 he traveled to Bulgaria, where he worked in the bar of the Sofia Opera House and to Yugoslavia, where he toured throughout the country.

He created the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana in 1979, directing the first ones held and also participating with his Afrojazz group in all that have been held. The first Festival held had a national character and from 1980 onwards it acquired an international character, with the participation of Brazilian singer Tania María. In subsequent years, great luminaries of Jazz participated in these festivals such as Richie Coll from the United States, Laco Decsy from Czechoslovakia, as well as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Haden among many others.

While working as a showman in the Copa Room of the Hotel Riviera in 1986, he founded Club Maxim, also called Chano Pozo at the behest of Dizzy Gillespie. During the four years that the aforementioned club existed, the best of Cuban musical youth passed through there and were trained alongside Bobby, dubbed by Cuban musicologist Leonardo Acosta as the last guru of Cuban jazz. Musicians such as César López, Maraca, Gonzalito Rubalcaba and established figures such as Frank Emilio and others passed through.

He participated in the 1988 Montreal and Ottawa Jazz Festival, Canada, alongside the brilliant pianist Emiliano Salvador and guitarist Ahmed Barroso. In 1990 he participated in the Caracas Jazz Festival, Venezuela, sharing these festivals with figures such as Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Manhattan Transfer and Ornette Coleman, among others.

He traveled to the city of New York on three occasions invited by the Arts Council of the Bronx and Lebanon Hospital Bronx in the years 1993, 1994 and 1995. On the first occasion he worked alone at Hostos Community College before an audience mostly Puerto Rican, which included Tito Puente and Mario Bauzá, he also worked with Eddie Palmieri at S.O.B. and in Central Park.

On his second visit, accompanied by Changuito, he taught master classes on vocal improvisation in Berkeley, Boston and the Drummers Collective of New York. In 1996, together with Chucho Valdés, after two concerts in the Bronx, he gave conferences and workshops in Berkeley. He regularly worked with Dave Valentine, Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri; and also with Yovanny Hidalgo and Antony Carrillo.

He participated as an actor in several Cuban and foreign films, alternating with actors of great prestige such as Mario Balmaseda, Mario Limonta and others. Among his other talents is that of draftsman and painter; Bobby exhibits his paintings within the framework of his performances throughout the world.

In recent years he has remained linked to the Jazz Plaza Festival, and has continued his career as a soloist. In 2012 he toured the United States, performing in Miami among other venues.