In 2005 I traveled to Cuba for three months where I studied drums and percussion at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana with some of Cuba's most esteemed players.

I had the honour of being taught drums and timbales by the great Emilio del Monte, the Cuban Buddy Rich. He has played drums for jazz legend Chucho Valdes in the sixties to more recently playing timbales with Cubanismo and at the minute is playing timbales for the current Buena Vista Social Club pianist Roberto Fonseca. Conga lessons were with drummer, percussionist, composer and arranger Alejandro Mayor and snare technique with Roberto Concepcion Rubi. Just about every kit drummer in Cuba plays using Roberto's technique.

The idea behind me going out there was to immerse myself in a musical environment in a country that I've wanted to visit for about ten years or more and bring back my learning to my students at home as well as enhancing my own playing. Although I play mainly jazz and rock orientated music the integration of Latin American music into just about every style of music you can think of meant I just had to study it in it's purest form.

Whilst I was there I had the opportunity to sit in with a Cuban friend's jazz group at La Zorra y El Cuervo Jazz Club in the Vedado district of Havana. This was a great honour (for me, not the club) as the club is Havana's premier jazz club and to have played there was a thrill indeed.

Cuba is a fairly poor country and even on what, for an Englishman, was a tight budget it doesn't take long to realise you are infinitely better off than the Cuban population. A lot of things are only available to tourists or Cubans who have found ways of earning money from tourists and an awful lot of things just simply aren't available. It was challenging in both the learning and the living but ultimately very rewarding.