By JORDAN LEVIN
             Special to The Herald

             A group of 30 to 35 American pop and rock musicians -- including Jimmy Buffett,
             former Public Enemy leader Chuck D and Joan Osborne -- will spend March
             21-28 in Havana collaborating with Cuban musicians there, culminating in a
             concert at the Karl Marx theater.

             The concert will be the first time so many American artists will appear in such a
             large, officially sanctioned event in Cuba since the 1979 Havana Jams, which
             included Billy Joel, Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson.

             Some in Miami's exile community question how real this exchange will be.

             ``I understand the rationale . . . but I think it's disingenuous and falsely naive,'' said
             Ricardo Pau-Llosa, a Cuban-American poet and art critic who is an English
             professor at Miami-Dade Community College.

             ``I have no problem with artists from one country exchanging ideas and
             collaborating with artists from another country. The problem is that when these
             American artists go to Cuba what they will do is join up with artists who represent
             the regime in one way or another, who are allowed to have careers.

             ``If they tried to have a genuine interaction with Cuba and its people, official or
             not, that would be positive -- but that's not what will happen. We will have the
             illusion of a bridge.''

             The project is being organized by Alan Roy Scott, a Los Angeles-based
             songwriter who is the founder of the nonprofit organization Music Bridges Around
             the World, and who has masterminded similar projects in the former Soviet Union
             as well as Bali, Romania and Ireland.

             ``The reason I'm doing this in Cuba is the same reason I did it in Russia,'' Scott
             said. ``We all share one planet. Music is a great communicator, and it reaches a
             level that transcends everything else.''

             A Buffett representative confirmed the singer would attend. Other confirmed artists
             include Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers from The Police, Me'shell
             Ndegeocello, the Indigo Girls, Kristofferson, Don Was, Mick Fleetwood, and
             Peter Buck of R.E.M.

             Organizers also are talking with Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Sting, and Paddy
             Maloney of The Chieftains.

             Raul Malo, the Miami-raised Cuban-American singer of the country band The
             Mavericks, has been invited but is trying to resolve a conflicting date, his manager,
             Frank Callari, said.

             Cuban musicians

             Among Cuban musicians scheduled to participate are jazz pianist Chucho Valdes,
             leader of the group Irakere; members of the groups Los Van Van, Maraca, Sierra
             Maestra and Sintesis; and pianist Ruben Gonzalez and bandleader/arranger Juan
             de Marcos, both of whom worked on the Ry Cooder-produced hit album, Buena
             Vista Social Club. Scott also said he is interested in rocker/troubadour Carlos
             Varela and Jose Luis Cortes, ``El Tosco,'' leader of NG La Banda.

             None of the American or Cuban artists or the organizers are being paid for their
             participation in the event, a Music Bridges spokesman said.

             One concern about cultural exchanges between the United States and Cuba has
             been whether payment to Cuban artists might end up in the hands of the Cuban
             government, which would be a violation of the U.S. trade embargo.

             Cuban bands have been touring more frequently in the United States in the past
             two years as cultural relations between the two countries began to thaw. The
             Buena Vista Social Club group even played in Carnegie Hall last July.

             The past year also saw Varela, NG, Valdes, and a number of other Cuban artists
             play in Miami-Dade County for the first time since before the Cuban Revolution,
             drawing protesters but also large and enthusiastic audiences. American musicians
             recently played in Havana, at the Havana Jazz Festival in December.

             Both countries approved

             The Music Bridges project, which has been in the works for more than a year, has
             been approved by the U.S. Treasury Department, the Cuban Ministry of Culture
             and the Cuban Music Institute, which is doing the organizing in Cuba.

             ``We were interested in the organizers' proposal because the Music Institute
             works to support not just Cuban culture or North American culture, but the culture
             of the world,'' said Tomas Missa, director of the Institute's International Division.

             Artists will be paired randomly, with names literally taken out of two hats. The new
             collaborators will spend a week writing songs, then play the results in an all-star
             jam on March 28.

             Scott said his reasons for building this ``musical bridge'' to Cuba had nothing to do
             with recent changes in Cuba policy encouraging cultural and other exchanges with
             the island, but with a broader belief in the humanizing powers of art.

             ``I like to think that I take my keyboard and guitar and walk into these minefields,''
             Scott said. ``With Cuba I have chosen one of the ultimate minefields on the planet.
             But these artists making music together speaks for itself in terms of the power of
             communication that happens through music. All the statements you need come
             from that one act.''
 

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