La Barriada, a Cuban group led by composer, arranger, and trumpeter Juan Kemell, born in Bauta and raised in Sancti Spíritus, in September 1995. Ten talented young Cubans came together to form this orchestra.

The group embraces various genres of Cuban popular music, especially Son, Guaracha, and Cha-Cha-Cha, incorporating Latin rhythms and achieving an authentic sound that also defines them as salsa musicians. Some of these young graduates of national music schools come from the group Yumurí y sus Hermanos, with which they recorded two CDs, one for the Japanese label Víctor, which has been in high demand in countries such as Japan and the United States.

La Barriada has toured internationally, including Japan, Venezuela, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Greece, and the Netherlands, among other countries, achieving excellent results with audiences and music experts. In 1996, they performed for two months at the Palacio de la Salsa Caribe in Cancún, Mexico.

A year later, they were in Tokyo at the Japan Fashion Festival, an event sponsored by the Triumph chain, accompanying 17 American dancers and four models from La Maison de Cuba. That same year, the Skuba Promotion Agency took them on a European tour that included countries such as France, Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland. This tour was a huge success and was repeated in 1998 and 1999.

The group also participated in the celebration of Ronnie Scott’s fortieth anniversary, a well-deserved selection for their rising success. Between 2001 and 2002, they participated in various performances in the Bahamas, one of them on the stage of the Atlantis Paradise Hotel in honor of the renowned athlete Michael Jordan.

La Barriada has a wide repertoire consisting of songs by Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, and Juan Formell, all of which, when performed by this group, have a very distinctive signature, in addition to the songs composed by two of its members, Juan Kemell and Julio Montoro.

In Cuba, they regularly appear at the Benny Moré and CUBADISCO festivals. They also participated in “El Son más largo del mundo” (The Longest Son in the World), alongside key figures in Cuban music.

La Barriada participated in the anniversary celebrations of the Japanese airline JAL in Mexico, held in various cities such as Acapulco, Ixtapa, Veracruz, and others.

The band has released a total of five albums to date. The 2008 release, “Havananza,” included a CD and DVD and was chosen as one of Descarga.com’s “Best of 2008.”