Overview

Leeds College of Music tutor Omar Puente gained his musical education in Havana in the 1980s. By day he studied at Escuala Nacional des Arte and Instituto Superior des Arte but at night he and his classmates learned their musicianship from the likes of Chucho Valdes, Ruben Gonzales and Guillermo Rubalcaba.

The young students learned to weave a story of love and life with their instruments, to blend harmony, melody and rhythm with complex tones and syncopation to create an original masterpiece of Cuban music, coloured by their love of life and each other. Their music was given a unique texture by respect for all that had gone before and belief in all that lay ahead.

Lessons of the School Yard – featuring some of the best UK-based Latin musicians – is Omar’s tribute to his Havana classmates, who in the intervening years have made names for themselves in classical, jazz and Cuban music in many countries around the world.