Jazz Heat Music Series | Kai Lyons Quartet
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Wednesday, Jul 17, 2024 12pm - 2pm
Location
Mechanics Monument Plaza
488 Market St
Details
ABOUT: Kai Lyons is a 29 year-old San Francisco native and student of all music. He is adjunct professor of jazz guitar at Cal State East Bay Hayward, teaches at the California Jazz Conservatory, and is a clinician for SFJAZZ, SF Symphony and Stanford University. He has performed with the SF Ballet Orchestra and Changui Guantanamo. He first visited Cuba in December 2016 through Cali2Cuba. On this first trip he became inducted into the Añá fraternity of bata drummers and studied with the illustrious Koto, “El Diamante Negro”. In 2017, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, he became exposed to changui, traditional music from Guantanamo, and the conga Santiaguera, carnival street music from Santiago, Cuba. In January of 2018 Kai took a $12 dollar 28-hour chicken-bus ride from Havana to Baracoa and made his initial connections with the musicians and traditions of Eastern Cuba, learning about kiriba, nengon, and the Tumba Francesa. In 2022, he became the first foreigner to win 1st prize at the international changüí festival of Guantánamo Cuba, on the Cuban guitar known as the tres. In July of 2023, at the invitation of Roberto Duvergel Ray, the bongosero for Changui Guantanamo, Kai recorded tres on the debut album of Sincopa Uno, a professional Cuban changui ensemble, at Egrem Studios in Santiago, Cuba. As of May 2024, Kai has visited Cuba 13 times.