PLAYING LECUONA

Directed by JUAN MANUEL VILLAR BETANCORT & PAVEL GIROUD

Date

August 20, 2019

About Project

DIRECTOR

JUAN MANUEL VILLAR BETANCORT & PAVEL GIROUD

COUNTRY

SPAIN / CUBA

RUNNING TIME

110 mins

YEAR

2015

LANGUAGE

Spanish with English subtitles

ABOUT THE FILM

In Playing Lecuona, Pavel Giroud and Juan Manuel Villar Betancort pay a visual and aural artistic tribute to Ernesto Lecuona through the cinematography of Santiago Torres and the very best of Latin America’s pianists playing his music – city soundscapes, or fusions of Afro-Cuban rhythms or Flamenco with Latin Jazz. The exuberance and ecstasy in the playing of Chucho Valdes in Havana, of Michael Camilo in New York, and of Gonzalo Rubalcaba in Seville and the insights into musicianship that they share are a true delight. As Michael Camilo says, ‘Lecuona must be listening from heaven’. We are right there with him.