Ryan Timoffee - Cuban Safari (2018)

After two decades of freelance, teaching, touring and recording, the Canadian pianist found himself in Havana recording his first solo album “Cuban Safari”. Alongside Cuban ex-pats Daymar Calvario, Daniel Rodriguez, Yasel Barreras and Camaguey-based Randy Veitia Godinez, the band recorded at an unknown studio in the Castro compound. Police pay-offs, a jam-packed vehicle full of musicians, 14-hour sessions, a missing sound engineer and detours around the Hurricane-flooded streets of Old Havana brought the world this hard-fought victory for music. Cuban Safari breathes from a 1957 Chevrolet where Ryan Timoffee’s visions of Cuba meet the real Cuba in a dramatic meltdown.