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This Buena Vista Social Club prodigy and Havana Cultura star has grabbed Cuban music by the horns and
drawn it, hot, stylish and sultry, into the 21st century. Roberto Fonseca’s new album, YO, is out this Spring
and looks back to his Caribbean roots while striking forwards with red-hot grooves, electronic beats and
sensuous lyricism that effortlessly updates Cuba’s musical lineage.

Fonseca hits the road as the album is about to be released with a seven-date UK tour starting on Fri 23
Mar. The tour line-up features Fonseca on piano and keyboards, Baba Sissoko on African percussion, Joel
Hierrezuelo on Cuban percussion, Ramsés Rodríguez on drums, Yandy Martínez on bass, Jorge Chicoy on
guitar, Javier Zalba on sax, flute and clarinet and Sekou Kouyate on kora. This group is the sound of things
to come in Afro-Cuban music, and with Roberto Fonseca at the helm, it is sure to be one of the live shows
to catch in 2012.

Opening for Roberto on this Black Routes tour is Ayanna, the first non-American to win the legendary
Amateur Night Live at the Harlem Apollo, whose beguiling vocals skip and swing over intimate, honey-sweet
cello. Her music was recently celebrated in an evening devoted to her work at the Kings Place Festival in
London, and last year she was commissioned to write a new piece for the Bath Festival, following
residencies at Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh. She’s just finished a UK tour with Natty and recording in New
York with Kronos Quartet, which neatly captures her full range.