•"SUBLIME! A PERFECT CD!"..Arnaldo Desouteiro, Tribuna Bis, Riode Janeiro, Brazil
“Extraordinary phrasing...stirring expressiveness.. .destined to become a cult…”Arnaldo DeSouteiro, La Tribuna, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
• "…Carbo’s voice has a rich timbre combined with directness and a remarkable feeling of intimacy and restrained passion…heartbreaking eloquence …the accompaniment is superb with Dario Eskenazi at the
keys…" Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
• “Havana Carbo sings hauntingly beautiful and sentimental love songs...put a glow on Redbones...caressed patrons with soft romantic melodies.” Jamaica Herald, Jamaica W.I.
Havana Carbo studied piano as a child in Havana, Cuba where she was born and raised, in an environment which celebrated music but viewed “night club”performing as inappropriate for a lady.
Under this scrutiny a budding performing career that began during her New York High School years - when jazz established residence in her soul - was cut short; a brief marriage to a Cuban economist she met while studying at Villanova University in Havana dealt the final blow to her musical pursuits....
...but twenty-odd years, three husbands and four fabulous children later, with life’s experience as a bonus, Havana resumed pursuit of her major passion - music.
In 1984, living in Stockbridge Mass. she started a group “Havana Midnight”which met with surprising success. In 1987 Soul Note signed her to record her first solo CD, “Street Cries” with Gene Bertoncini & Michael Moore. She was awarded a Mass Arts Grant in ‘89 and in ‘93 received two documents - an MFA in composition from TSOA/NYU’s Musical Theatre Program as a Yip Harburg Fellow, and an unsolicited divorce decree which turned out to be an invaluable gift.
Today, happily divorced, she lives in NY and is devoted entirely to her art.
Havana performs extensively in the US and abroad, equally at home with a jazz standard, or singing in Italian, Spanish, French or Portuguese. Venues include Aaron Davis Hall, Berkshire Museum, Smith College, NY Public Library Series; Birdland, B.Smith’s, Tavern-on-the Green, hotels from New England to Miami’s South Beach “Marlin”; Couples and Sans Souci in Ocho Rios, Wyndham and the exclusive Redbones Blues Cafe in Kingston where a drink was created in her honor; Jazz Festivals in Jamaica and Barbados, and an upcoming European tour for winter ‘99.
She’s been featured guest on radio WNYC Around NY; WBGO ; WHCR; WFDU;WLUZ San Juan;WFCR Mass; WDNA Miami, KLAS Kingston. Cuts from her recent CD “...So I’ll Dream You Again”, CAP ‘97, can be heard in-flight on VARIG Airlines, and will soon be heard on Air Jamaica. Glowing reviews come from as far as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Arnaldo Desouteiro, La Tribuna, “ ... her voice travels with a voice of singularly warm timbre and her phrasing has extraordinary and stirring expressiveness... ...destined to develop a cult”. Her CD was selected one of the top 10 in Jazz for 1997 in Brazil and was chosen #1 Female Jazz Vocalist for 2004 in Brazil (La Tribuna, Rio de Janeiro).
Joanna Rudnick, Artful Mind, Mass. wrote “...her velvet voice parades throughout your body...her music subtly reminds the listener that she has lived in every lyric and every note...also writes bone-shattering poetry.”
Havana also writes poetry, and she’s found her home in a community of extraordinary musicians with whom she is proud to work, is nourished by love of music, family, friends. She lives in constant awe of the gift that is music, fully aware of the responsibility that comes with the gift, always striving to keep alive the dream.
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