Cuban samba rhythms and New Orleans’s style jazz piano are an intoxicating combo in this jiving performance by Castillo on drums and Iriarte on keyboard.

Gino Castillo is an Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist, singer and leader of the local bands in Charleston, Gino Castillo Quartet and SoulFunKubanized, a tribute to African-American music that influenced a change in modern Cuban music in the 1970s. His music studies began in Ecuador, with various local teachers. Gino traveled to Cuba, where he settled for several years. Gaining experience as a professional musician, he spends most of his time studying with master teacher Oscar Valdez Moreno as well as specializing in the investigation and development of Cuban music in Felix Varela School, and “Escuela Alejandro Garcia Caturla.”

Abdiel Iriarte is a pianist, composer and musical director from Venezuela. He is in the United States by the invitation of South of Broadway Theatre Company in North Charleston, SC