Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna in International Salsa Magazine

Who is Fausto Cuevas

Fausto Cuevas is a bandleader and percussionist from the state of Texas who is currently leading the orchestra Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna, which has been playing in a large number of nightclubs located in the state of California, where Fausto currently resides.

For its part, Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna is a salsa group whose purpose is to take the old Latin genres and provide a modern twist to them. While it is true that their main genre is and has been salsa, its members also experiment a lot with Cuban guaguancó, yambú, cumbia, son, cha cha chá, among others.

We are proud to have such an artist in our June edition and hope that this conversation will grace all our readers.

Fausto’s beginnings in music

Fausto grew up in Brownsville, a village in Texas very close to the southern border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where his father is from. Due to this territorial proximity to Mexico, the artist was always exposed to ranchera instruments and, in particular, drums. The latter would be very important in what would become his professional future.

At the age of 11, he entered the public school system and was assigned to play a snare drum in a symphonic style. It can be said that this is when his fascination for this type of instrument began and continues till this very day.

In fact, Fausto claimed to have not been interested in guitar, piano or bass. He was always very clear that his aspirations were focused on drums, and percussion.

These first steps led him to specialize in playing American music, rock and jazz. Until then, he had not had any contact with Latin or Afro-Cuban music, but that would eventually change.

Moving from Boston to California

Fausto tells us that his biggest dream was always to go to New York, since the music scene was vibrant there at that time, but he could never do it due to some personal issues he encountered, such as the birth of his daughter. This is what made him move to Los Angeles and give up on that dream.

When we asked him if he still wanted to live in ”The Big Apple”, he told us that he had already found his place in California and his career had already taken root in this part of the United States.

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna was created in a very particular way. One day, Fausto received a call from the department at Berkeley that does concerts for the Boston community and was asked if he had a salsa band to play at the Tito Puente Latin Music Series. He said yes to everything, although he had nothing prepared at the time.

What he did have was a group of friends who were related to music and happened to live in Boston. They were all so well-suited and had so many plans that things worked out in an extraordinary way. That was 25 years ago and they have stayed together to this day despite the obstacles.

Relationships with other artists and genres

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna have performed and toured with stars such as Marc Anthony, Jose Alberto ”El Canario”, Celia Cruz, Julio Iglesias, Santana, Tito Nieves, Tito Puente Jr., Stavie Wonder Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, among others.

One thing that Fausto feels he has learned from these artists is to be identifiable as a Latino in American genres. He says it is very interesting to create things, always identifying with Latin rhythms when playing soul, R&B or pop.

Having had so much contact with all these musical luminaries has helped him to rediscover himself and be much more creative when mixing Latin and American elements. In this sense, knowing the roots of the genres he plays has helped him a lot to know how to link both worlds.

It is precisely the knowledge of these roots which has made Fausto Y la Moderna stand out among other Californian groups.

Future projects

As to future projects, Fausto Y la Moderna plans to release a few singles this year and record the rest of the album in order to release the whole album in 2024.

He also pointed out that he is about to release an album with Gonzalo Grau Y La Clave Secreta, another group in which he is also involved, so he invites everyone to listen to his music through networks and digital platforms.

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