Hot Tropical Nights. A tribute to Ernesto Lecuona.

• 14 November 2026 | 8.00 pm
• Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg, Bernkasteler Str 78

Stawinski / Ruiz / Gehrken

A tribute to Ernesto Lecuona

• Daniel Stawinski – piano
• Olvido Ruiz – vocals
• Robby Gehrken – percussion

Alongside the great instrumentalists, female singers also shaped the sound of Havana in the 1950s. This concert combines the works of Ernesto Lecuona with the music that filled the night-time streets of Havana during that era.

Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963) was one of the most important Cuban composers of the 20th century. With works such as ‘Malagueña’ and ‘Siboney’, the Lecuona Cuban Boys, and numerous stage and film scores, he brought Cuban music to international attention. His work combined the European piano tradition with Afro-Cuban rhythms and influenced generations of musicians. He enjoyed great success, particularly in the USA, and worked in film, amongst other things. Following the Cuban Revolution, he left his homeland and went into exile in Spain, where he died in 1963.

Yet Havana in the 1950s was not just about son, rumba or cha-cha-chá. The ‘filin’ – a fusion of Cuban boleros with the harmonies of American jazz – became the city’s soundtrack. Artists such as César Portillo de la Luz, Aida Diestro, Elena Burke and Omara Portuondo shaped this intimate, jazz-influenced style. In his memoirs, the writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante repeatedly described Elena Burke’s ever-present voice and the sounds of filin and jazz (Nat King Cole, etc.) as emblematic of 1950s Havana. After initially supporting the revolution, he too went into exile in London as the Castro government increasingly slid into a dictatorship controlled by the Soviet Union, and never returned to Cuba.

Daniel Stawinski, Olvido Ruiz and Robby Gehrken are dedicated to this extraordinary musical legacy and build a bridge between Lecuona’s compositions, the filín and modern Cuban jazz.

Daniel Stawinski first immersed himself in Cuban music whilst in Paris; he is the founder of the internationally successful chamber jazz collective and leads numerous Afro-Cuban bands, such as the Cuban Heartbeat Orchestra, which regularly performs at the ZigZag Club.

Olvido Ruiz is one of the outstanding Cuban singers on the Berlin music scene, and Robby Gehrken is one of Berlin’s most distinguished percussionists.

Supported by the Jazz 2026 project funding scheme of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.