For almost three months now, jazz fans have been able to meet in a discreet venue in the heart of the San Blas district, a stone's throw from Cuzco's touristy Plaza de Armas. The Peruvian city, home to dozens of rock and salsa clubs, now has a club devoted entirely to jazz and its many more or less experimental offshoots: Casa Palacio 116. 

Juan José Herrera, a double bass player from the Barcelona Conservatory, is behind this new venue, which opened after several months of pandemic. A challenge! "I left Spain and moved to Cuzco four years ago. My mother is Peruvian. I wanted a place where musicians from the Peruvian jazz scene, and South America in general, could meet. Cuzco lacked a place for jazz! Now, the challenge is to bring together an audience that is much more accustomed to traditional and Latin music. It's not easy, but we're offering as varied a program as possible." And despite the still tense health situation in Peru, the young club organizes concerts every week: on Tuesdays, jam sessions with young musicians, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays, concerts with professional groups and soloists.

On this Thursday, October 14, a few Cuzqueniens, average age 25-30, crowd the glass door of the small concert hall. On the bill: saxophonist Rafael Fusa Miranda, from Lima. The audience settles on four wooden benches facing the small, carpeted stage. 

The venue is intimate, with white walls and exposed stonework, and glasses filled with Argentinian wine clink before the concert begins. The musicians chat with the audience.The saxophone is not a very common instrument in Peru," explains Rafael Fusa, who, after a few years of classical training at the conservatory, preferred to continue his training as a self-taught musician, in contact with jazzmen. In my music, I'm very influenced by the jazz of Miles Davis and Charlie Mingus, but also by the traditional music of my country. But his attachment to the Andean folklore of Huancayo y Ayacucho, and particularly to the ritual dance music of Los Danzantes de Tijeras, which is also a dance of cultural resistance, is a constant in his musical experimentation, which he shares particularly with his group Fusa/Gomez Duo.

The compositions Rafael and his musicians played that evening oscillated between astonishing, experimental modalities and references to a more classical jazz language, with daring improvisations and an arsenal of traditional percussion (grelos, rain sticks, maracas) moored at various points on the drums.
Passionate musicians and a new venue that we wish long life to.

Suzanne Gervais