The New Miami Sound

The club owner plans to put together two more bands by this fall -- one for the new club, another to substitute on Calle Ocho when the original group goes to Paris for the album release. He also wants to start a booking agency for Cuban musicians throughout the United States, something similar to a musicians' guild that would help them find jobs and provide them with health insurance. And he has already talked with people about opening branches of Cafe Nostalgia in Paris and Madrid. But Horta says he will keep the Calle Ocho club open. The place has such magic that he superstitiously refuses to repaint the dance floor. When he has the money, he would even like to rent another space on Calle Ocho to build a recording studio, and perhaps a film production company.

To that end he has already envisioned his first movie, a magic realist tale whose characters are musicians who play in a club in Little Havana. He's hard at work on the screenplay. It's called Miracle on Calle Ocho.