A group of jazz musicians are hoping an upcoming music concert will help take them one step closer to the Cuban music scene.The Giant Steps jazz band, featuring six veterans of the Bermuda music stage, is hoping to raise $40,000 to attend the Cuban Jazz Festival next year.The group, organised by Dale Butler of Atlantic Publishing House and Diane Hartley of My Thyme Productions, has held several successful concerts this year.“Two hundred and thirty years of combined musical experience and talent is what makes Giant Steps so special,” said Mr Butler. “Several of our members are over 80.“In all of the other concerts this year we featured guest artists“ With this concert we have no guest artists. This is an opportunity to hear the entire band on its own.”The bands members are Max Maybury, Eugene (Stacker) Joell, Clarence (Tootsie) Bean, Dennis Fox, Quinton (Tiny) Burgess, and Graham Maule.Mr Butler said it was a matter of “slow and steady” when it came to raising the money for the band to go to Cuba.The group has held potluck suppers and bake sales in addition to concerts including one at Heard Chapel earlier this year.“The Giant Steps band members have been practising religiously every Saturday,” said Mr Butler. “They are taking it very seriously.”In March, they will learn if they’ve been accepted by the festival in Havana.“I videotaped the band rehearsing at the end of July and made a 25-minute movie,” said Mr Butler. “I took that to Cuba to show the Cuban Jazz Festival committee. They were very impressed with a number of things including the quality of the music. They understood it was a rehearsal they were looking at.”Mr Butler said they were particularly impressed by the number of veteran musicians in the group. They also noticed the that the listening audience in the film was a mix of older and younger music lovers.“They said it was by far the best presentation they had,” said Mr Butler. “I didn’t have a compact disc of their work, but I had a movie, plus artists’ biographies and numerous clippings from The Royal Gazette about the players.”The Bermuda group is up against at least 30 other bands. Only a handful are picked to play in the festival.“The festival is very prestigious,” said Mr Butler. “Havana is the place to play for recognition and lessons.“If the band goes down to Cuba they will be taking lessons as well. The Unit was the first band I entered in the festival in 2009.”The concert will be held on September 9 at the Leopards Club, 12 Brunswick Street in Hamilton. Tickets, $50, are available at Music Box on Reid Street.There will be two more concerts this year in late October.When Mr Butler went to Cuba this year for the application process he also took tap dancer and musician Mitchell Trott. There, Mr Trott took tap dancing lessons from the esteemed Cuban tap dancer Abraham Penalver.Mr Butler made a movie about Mr Trott’s visit to Cuba, ‘Havana Tap’. Mr Butler will screen ‘Havana Tap’ on September 8 at his home at 35 Angle Street. Tickets, $10, can be paid for at the door.