Ed Tillett compares Santiago de Cuba to Appalachia.

“The whole eastern province of Cuba is to Cuban music what Appalachia is to country music in the U.S.,” says the co-director of the forthcoming documentary, “The Sound of Santiago.” “It’s so isolated. You can still find this music that is being performed in the same way that it was 150 years ago.”

“The Sound of Santiago” is the result of years of two dedicated filmmakers documenting the music of the region. Featuring more than twenty filmed performances of indigenous bands and performers, the movie—not yet finalized—will be the center of a special preview program at the University of Richmond’s Camp Concert Hall on Thursday, March 6. The event is free.

“For lack of a better term, the evening will be a live documentary,” Tillett says. “It will feature [nearly an hour] of filmed performances and interviews broken up by a series of live introductions and descriptions that talk about the value of the music.” The showcase will also see a live appearance by guest musician Arturo O’Farrill, a Grammy-winning jazz pianist and composer, and the leader of the Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra.

“The bottom line is that we want people to know about this music,” says co-director Dr. Mike Davison, professor of music at UR, and the director of its jazz ensemble. “And we want to show them where the music comes from.”

Fascinated by the rhythms of latin jazz, trumpet master Davison has made more than 50 trips to Cuba over the past 30 years—at first focusing on the sounds found in big city Havana but eventually venturing 500 plus miles into Santiago and surrounding areas. Davison, who started UR’s jazz program 39 years ago, became the first American to perform at the Santiago de Cuba Jazz Festival and to do musical clinics at the Santiago Conservatory For the Arts. He sings the praises not only of the indigenous musicians he’s encountered and performed with, but the audiences. “Talk about musical appreciation. In Cuba,” he says, “when you play and you do something special, it’s like a baseball game. The whole section will stand up and scream like you were a star.”

In 2007, he and fellow trumpeter Tillett, a former public TV producer and host now working in publishing, made a documentary on the island’s music called “Cuba: Rhythm in Motion.” “I was intrigued by Mike’s work in Cuba,” says Tillett, “and it was at a time in my life when I could devote some additional time to an outside project that had absolutely no way of paying me anything.” (Aside from some initial seed money and occasional travel reimbursements from the university, Davison and Tillett have funded their Cuba filming excursions themselves).

Culled from more than two decades of footage, “The Sound of Santiago” dives a little deeper and wider. “The first film, we covered a lot of work there but kept a sense of curiosity,” Tillett says. “We now know the influence that Cuba has had on world music, particularly the U.S., and we also know the influence the U.S. has had on Cuba. That’s easy. But where in Cuba did this start?”

All signs point to Santiago. “Everyone knows about Havana but very few in the world, especially in the U.S., know about Santiago,” he says.

The second-largest city in Cuba, behind Havana, Santiago de Cuba is the the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. An important sea port, it is best known as the birthplace of son cubano, where salsa, for one, comes from. Among the talented musicians who hail from the city is multi-instrumentalist Daniel Guzmán Loyzaga, known to many as “The Leonard Bernstein of Cuba.”

“Cuba has more than 25 different styles,” says Davison. “This includes cha-cha-cha, bomba, rumba, changüí, nengon, kiriba… the eastern part of Cuba, mostly Santiago, is where all of this music originates from, except for rumba, which came from the shipping yards of Havana.”

“We’ve confirmed that the music set the stage for the clave rhythm and you’ll see that when you watch the film,” Tillett adds. Among other things, the filmmakers captured the musical offerings featured during Santiago’s annual Carnival celebration.

The documentarians hope to finish “The Sound of Santiago” this year—the footage is in editor Tillett’s hands now—but there’s some uncertainty about what will happen next. “I’d like to enter it into some film festivals,” says Davison. His partner is unsure. “I know that the film will be on YouTube and available through the university, but beyond that, I don’t know,” Tillett says, adding that he was “blown away” by the musical performances they have managed to capture.

“I haven’t really seen this stuff anywhere else. People just don’t go where we go. Time has kind of stood still in eastern Cuba,” he explains. “Yeah, they have radio but the influence of the world did not flood in like it did everywhere else. So we are able to culturally collect these fascinating images and sounds.”

Selections from the film, “The Sound of Santiago” will be featured at Camp Concert Hall at the University of Richmond on March 6. 7:30 p.m. The event is free but tickets are required and available thru https://tickets.modlin.richmond.edu/