Arnold Jay Smith Jazz Vent

i’ve stolen the title of this chapter from a Star Trek movie as it all seems so phantasmagorical.  it was May 1977.  we had just spent a week on board the SS Daphne getting to and celebrating on an island that was, and remains, if only somewhat less so, off limits to U.S. citizens.  some on board  had performed for Cuban audiences including one at a private get-together jam session with the Cuban fusion group Irakere from which came subsequent defectors, among them Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval.  we got to meet the group’s leader, the brilliant keyboardist Chucho Valdes.  a couple of other passengers met with Cuban authorities, which in retrospect seems to be what this mission was all about (Chapter 3).