Daymé Arocena says Blues Alley canceled her Washington show after she asked not to be linked to Cuba's embassy

October 14, 2026

Cuban singer-songwriter Daymé Arocena said in an Instagram video that Blues Alley, the historic jazz club in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, called off the concert she was due to play on Tuesday, October 13, as a guest of Havana-born trumpeter Kalí Rodríguez-Peña. According to Arocena, the cancellation email arrived around noon on Monday, October 12, after she had already flown to New York to rehearse with the band, Diario Las Américas and CubaNet reported.

The show was part of Blues Alley's Cuban Jazz Series for Hispanic Heritage Month, a program the club organized in collaboration with several Latin American embassies, including Cuba's, as local paper The Georgetowner had announced. The ticketing page listed two sets, at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m., and billed the night as "Co-Presented with the Embassy of Cuba."

Arocena said saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera alerted her to the promotion, and that Rodríguez-Peña's team then wrote to the club asking not to be associated with the embassy, since they are artists living in exile who do not feel represented by it. "We had no idea that would mean they would literally cancel our concert without explanation," she said. Blues Alley has not issued a public statement on the decision, and the Cuban Embassy has not commented.

The singer apologized to fans who had bought tickets and said she hopes another Washington date can be arranged soon. "We came to this country to live in freedom, and I hope our freedoms are respected," added Arocena, one of the most acclaimed Afro-Cuban jazz voices of her generation.