(Prensa Latina) Havana, Cuba - A recital to pay tribute to composer and leader of Los Van Van, Juan Formell, Grammy Award winner, will open the Young Jazz Artist International Contest Jojazz 2004 at Havana´s Amadeo Roldán Auditorium Theater.

The seventh annual contest will pay homage to Formell, the most important popular dance music composer of the latest 40 years in Cuba and founder of Los Van Van, "The Rolling Stones of Cuba," celebrating their 35th anniversary on December 4.

Through Sunday November 21, the Roldán´s Caturla Hall, a stage trodden by giants such as Erich Kleiber, Leopoldo Stokowski and Chucho Valdés, will be the place for students of the Cuban music school system to try their jazz skills.

The "frighteningly amazing" kids, as Grammy Award winner Irakere bassist Carlos del Puerto dubbed them, will compete for the three first places and the grand award of the event.

Guest students from Trinidad and Tobago and Canada will participate off-contest, only to accumulate experience, Jojazz agent Alexis Vázquez, Cuban Music Institute Deputy-President told Prensa Latina.

Meanwhile, a parallel three-day academic meeting in charge of relevant musicologists such as Helio Orovio, Juan Carlos Malagón, Maria Córdoba and Neris González, will be hosted by Havana´s Cuban Copyrights Association.