Casa de la Trova

The Casa de la Trova on Calle Heredia is Santiago's most important music venue and one of the essential experiences in Cuba. Son, bolero, and other traditional Afro-Cuban forms have been performed here since the 1960s; the musicians are typically veterans who have played this music their whole lives.

Sessions run most afternoons and evenings, with the earliest performances (around noon onwards) usually the least touristed. The building is a colonial townhouse with a covered courtyard; the music spills into the street. A peso bar serves rum at local prices. Even if you have no particular interest in Cuban music, an hour here in the evening heat, with the rhythms coming through the walls, is an experience specific to Santiago and not replicable anywhere else.

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A story
The Casa de la Trova in Santiago is where son — the Afro-Cuban musical form that became salsa — was preserved and celebrated through the decades when it was considered old-fashioned. When the Buena Vista Social Club recordings were released in 1997, the world discovered music that had been playing here, largely ignored by the wider world, for decades.