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Cuban-Canadian musician Alex Cuba talks about his life and career

How language influences Alex Cuba’s music

We have a very special guest. This is Cuban artist Alex Cuba whose real name is Alexis Puentes and is based in Canada. How are you feeling?

I am very well. I would like to make a small correction before starting the conversation. I am Cuban-Canadian because I have been 23 years in this country. I am as Cuban as Canadian. It is very important for me to mention that I am Cuban-Canadian.

Perfect, thank you very much for the clarification. You sing in both English and Spanish. How much has this bilingual approach of languages helped your career?

Most of my work is in Spanish. There is very little that I have done in English. I think what has most helped my career has been my diversity and my ability to enter any musical genre.

This is Alexis Puentes — Alex Cuba, who is based in Canadá for many years

I have noticed that when you sing in English, you usually focus more on pop or genres that are more popular in the Anglo-Saxon language.

Not necessarily. I also make pop in Spanish. Language does not define pop music because you can find pop in any language in the world. I do things depending on how I feel them, how they come to me at that moment and how it makes sense to do them.

Do you achieve more receptivity on the part of Spanish-speaking or English-speaking audiences?

As you know, my native language is Spanish, so it makes total sense that I reach out more to the Spanish-speaking world than the English-speaking world.

You are the son of a guitarist and music teacher. How do you think this influenced the path you would later take?

Definitely, had I not been the son of a guitarist, I do not think I would be a musician now. I would probably be a doctor or a sportsman. I was lucky that he taught me to play guitar and my father definitely had a major influence on my path.

Besides being an artist, was there another profession you entered or became interested in?

When I was a teenager, I was interested in science and medicine. At some point, I wanted to be a surgeon, but my love for music came back permanently when I was about 14 years old. That’s the only thing I’ve done since then.

Alex and his wife — Alex Cuba and his wife and manager Sarah Goodacre

Has Cuban culture influenced his music?

What led you to enter Cuban jazz and folk?

I had the opportunity to have a very wide musical training that goes from jazz to rock, blues, folk, nueva trova, guaguancó, salsa, timba and many more genres. Music is all the same for me, I only divide it into good and bad music. Life led me to become a jazzman first because I was attracted to jazz and I think that has no explanation. It’s like love. You see something or someone and you like it. You see a person and you do not know why, which happened to me with jazz. So, jazz was a great start for me. When you begin a career in music like I did, I think you see music from the inside. Besides all the study and dedication needed to play jazz, you have to know an instrument pretty well and know in depth music.

I never sang in Cuba because I left when I was only 21 years old. It was when I arrived in Canada that I started singing, people liked my voice and that gave me the push I needed to be who I am. We are talking about a career in life.

Do you think those 21 years in Cuba influenced the music you play today?

I wouldn’t say that those 21 years influenced the music I play, but further trained me for the future. Cuba trained me and Canada fulfilled me. If I Could not make music without targeting a specific audience as we do in Cuba or Miami, I would not be who I am now. If I had not come to Canada, I would not be the person I am now.

After being away from your native country so much, what things do you retain from Cuba?

I still like Cuban cigars. I really like Cohiba cigars. I’m a big fan of Cohibas and I love to smoke them while drinking whiskey.

Do you think your music and way of life are a mix of both nations to a certain extent?

Yes, definitely. It is a seed that grows between mango and apple. A tree that is born and grown between two places.

Alex Cuba holding his Grammy — Alex Cuba after winning his Grammy

How has the course of your work and artistic activity during the pandemic?

Everything has gone successfully. I have dedicated myself to creating, recording, composing, releasing singles and many other things.

So things didn’t stop for you

Not at all and I don’t think it happened that way for many content creators. Creativity is in need of nothing because it simply happens. That has been my case and that of many creators with whom I have been in touch in the past year because I have several guests on my album “Mendó”, of which we have just released a single and a new video for the song “Amor A La Distancia”. That album was created during the pandemic and all the collaborators with whom I had contact were at the same rate as me. We were all trying to do something and not hold us up because of the situation. It was nice to get that vibe.

What projects do you have pending for 2022?

I have pending tours that have been delayed since 2020. I’m going to tour and keep releasing music. That’s the point. I still don’t want to go to the moon in a rocket (laugh).

So, you haven’t resumed your activities on the stage to date.

I haven’t wanted to yet. I’m having trouble returning to the stage because it feels weird. I don’t think I’m psychologically prepared for that, but there will be.

Would you have a message for those future artists who come to read this interview?

They must ensure that the desire to be an artist or express art comes from the heart and the soul. That’s very important. If that’s how you start in the art world, it will be like this forever. If you start on social media, you will get to the point where you will not like it anymore.

Your social networks and website for people to follow you

My website is alexcuba.com and you can find me on Instagram as @Iamalexcuba. On Twitter, you can find me as @alexcuba and on Facebook as Alex Cuba.

Alex with a guitar — Alex Cuba playing the guitar

Venezuela violinist and former musician in El Sistema Ali Bello has many interesting things to say

Venezuelan musician Alí Bello has become one of the best Latin music violinists in New York, so we could not miss the opportunity to talk to him and learn as much as we could about his fascinating story. The young man has given his best to become a true icon of Latin Jazz in his current city of residence, so do not miss this great conversation.

Ali playing the violin — Venezuelan musician Ali Bello playing the violin live

Alí’s beginnings in the world of music thanks to El Sistema

From a young age, Alí became interested in music, which led him to join the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela, where he studied classical music as an extracurricular activity. This in order for Alí and his classmates to be busy in any activity until their parents came to pick them up after work.

This was when an orchestra or school of music was formed clase to his father’s work, so Bello was enrolled in these classes from 2 to 5 p.m. after school. So it went for him since he was in kindergarten, and he learned to play the xylophone and the recorder. When the boy was seven years old, the school orchestra located in La Rinconada, Caracas, was officially created, but due to how small Ali was, the only instrument the school could assign him according to his size was the violin, which he keeps playing diligently to this day.

After many years of being part of the National Youth Orchestra, he got ahead with his musical career and decided to go to the United States to continue his university studies and train as a professional musician.

Other instruments besides the violin

In addition to the violin, Alí also plays a lot of percussion, since he considers it very important. He thinks every folk and Latin musician must handle percussion as efficient as possible and each of its rhythms in order to internalize the style they want to play on any instrument.

“Percussion and singing have always fascinated me, so I try to devote myself to both even a little bit, but it is undeniable that the violin has always been my main instrument. I’ve tried to focus all styles and everything I work on towards the violin to turn it into the main element,” the musician added on this subject.

Ali and Gustavo — Ali Bello, his son and maestro Gustavo Dudamel

How the opportunity to study in the United States came about

Initially, Alí was supported by his violin teacher Margaret Pardee, who taught at the Juilliard School and went to Venezuela to give master classes. It was Pardee who encouraged Alí to continue his education in New York, which he finally achieved thanks to the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho scholarship fund and the Simón Bolívar Musical Foundation.

This is how the Venezuelan artist obtained his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and PHD.

At college, he met Johnny Almendra, thanks to whom he discovered genres other than classical music, in which he was not only the performer of melodies but could also create his own music. He then discovered styles of Venezuelan and Latin music that inspired him to explore more varied rhythms different from what he had known before.

He played regularly with Johnny Almendra and his modern charanga group Los Jovenes del Barrio for a time and subsequently played for La Típica Novel and other orchestras. As Alí gained experience in the world of charanga and Latin music in general, he started having opportunities to learn and explore other genres such as Brazilian music, Afro-Cuban music, Latin jazz, and many more.

Collaborations with major artists in the industry

All this hard-won ground gave Alí the opportunity and the honor to collaborate with great artists in the industry such as Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco, Rudy Calzado, Pedro Cortés, José Fajardo senior, Pupi Legarreta, and many more. All these figures helped him not only to have a better understanding of the Afro-Cuban style and tradition, but also of the influence of New York on music.

Ali and Pupy — Maestro Pupy Legarreta and Ali Bello

Thanks to this knowledge base, he had the courage to release a record album, La Charanga Syndicate, in which, as the name suggests, he uses charanga and all the influences coming from the musicians he has known and continues to know. For this reason, he feels he now has something to say and bring to the style.

Another important thing for his career was his participation in Jay-Z’s concert to celebrate the anniversary of the release of his first album. The rapper wanted to mark the occasion by playing with a symphony orchestra, so hired many musicians of all kinds to make a great show at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Fortunately for Ali, he was well-known in the music scene at the time, so he was contacted to participate in the event.

In that sense, the violinist is very happy to be in New York, as the world’s greatest artists always take this city into account for their concerts, which gives musicians like him the opportunity to have access to these great figures in the industry.

Ali as an arranger

In addition to being a percussionist and violinist, Ali has also ventured into musical arrangements quite successfully thanks to all the academic training he had received up until then. However, as he became a more experienced professional, he began to notice that his own ideas and thoughts came to life in his work. So, having the theory in his head, he could take those ideas he had had and develop them within the rhythmic and stylistic elements which are willing to use on each occasion.

In addition to that, the artist also works on production and mixing a bit to achieve the necessary sound. He even has his own studio where he plays for his own productions and other artists’ records as a freelancer.

Ali and Juan — Ali Bello and Juan Carlos Formell from Los Van Van in Poland

Los Surik is a musical group formed in Victoria, Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba

Los Surik, a musical group from Las Tunas a province known for orchestras recognized both nationally and internationally has distinguished itself in the Cuban music scene for its excellence.

Los Surik is a group that was created in Victoria Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba.

This group of fifteen musicians (four of whom are vocalists) was established in Victoria, Las Tunas, in eastern Cuba.

They began their professional careers in 1982, focusing on harmonious arrangements through the use of complex structures, all in service of preserving the authenticity of the genres they perform, such as son, guaracha, merengue, song, and bolero, among others.

Los Surik used to rehearse at the home of José Luis Borrel, across from the old La Gran Señora store (at the intersection of Lucas Ortiz and Julián Santana streets). Later, they moved their instruments to Benny Revuelta’s house, on Gonzalo de Quesada street, at the corner of Lucas Ortiz.

This orchestra has stood out in the world of music in Cuba for its excellence.

Los Surik’s repertoire included, among other pieces, classic Spanish and American pop songs, and instrumentals that Benny would recreate with his saxophone. Pablín (now deceased) was an excellent singer, later a finalist on the TV show Todo el mundo canta. Paco Mesa also shone as a vocalist. Catalá was comfortable on the drums, as was Omarito on the bass. The speakers in the photo were designed by José Luis Borrell, who, in addition to being a musician, was a great electronics enthusiast.

In 1994, the group released an album titled Alma Musical (CD (Magic Music 0003-3)). Some of the songs from this album were number one in Cuba at that time.

Los Surik holds an interesting first in their career: its members ushered in the era of discography in Las Tunas, by recording the first long-play record in the territory in 1985. The album features 12 tracks, most of which were authored by group members, and it was recorded at Siboney studios in Santiago de Cuba. Due to its foundational nature, the album is an invaluable piece for the cultural heritage of Las Tunas.

Group Photo and Member

This photo was taken in the 1980s at the home of actress and promoter Blanquita Becerra (center), during the time when this once very popular and distinguished lady of Cuban lyrical theater resided in Las Tunas.

Among other members of the musical collective pictured are Arturo Gooden, Alberto Bada, Benny Revuelta, Gerardo Leyva, Raúl Cáceres, Héctor Aguilar, and Rafael Diez.

At that time, Los Surik was composed of the following musicians:

Julián Galbán Cruz – Bass
Fernando E. Quintana – Saxophone
Herminio García Rodríguez – Trombone
Gastón H. Allen Binhan – Trumpet
Rolando Portillo Cedeño – Trumpet
Arnaldo García Estrada – Keyboards
Eldo A. González Mantilla – Piano
Pablo S. Machado Palmero – Congas
Edilberto Machado Alba – Timbales
Luis Alfonso Guerra Ramírez – Bongos
José Eugenio Marín Tejeda – Vocals
Virginia Iznaga Cantero – Vocals
José Manuel Arnedo Rodríguez – Vocals
Francisco G. Mesa Marrero – Vocals

Lost Treasures and Alma Musical

Almost all the orchestra members were composers of the songs they performed. Sadly, many of these songs were never recorded on any album, so we cannot enjoy the high quality of the tracks they created. Only a lucky few had the chance to enjoy them live in concerts they gave outside of Cuba.

Los Surik – Alma Musical (1994)

Tracks:

Dame Un Traguito (Son)
Estoy Romántica (Ballad son)
Amor De Película (Son montuno)
El Cantante Enamorado (Son)
Lo Que Cae Es Candela (Son)
A Ese Le Llaman Parejero (Son montuno)
La Fuerza Del Amor (Merengue)
Juanita Morey (Merengue)
La Luna Compartir (Ballad son)
Voz Universal (Son)
La Noche Junto A Ti (Bolero)

Musicians:

Julián Galbán Cruz (Bass)
Fernando E. Quintana (Saxophone)
Herminio García Rodríguez (Trombone)
Gastón H. Allen Binhan (Trumpet)
Rolando Portillo Cedeño (Trumpet)
Arnaldo García Estrada (Keyboards)
Eldo A. González Mantilla (Piano)
Pablo S. Machado Palmero (Congas)
Edilberto Machado Alba (Timbales)
Luis Alfonso Guerra Ramírez (Bongos)
José Eugenio Marín Tejeda (Vocals)
Virginia Iznaga Cantero (Vocals)
José Manuel Arnedo Rodríguez (Vocals)
Francisco G. Mesa Marrero (Vocals)

By:

L’Òstia Latin Jazz

Dj. Augusto Felibertt

EcuRed

Also Read: Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñero has played an important role in Cuban music for over seven decades.

Ignacio Piñero Septeto Nacional has played an important role in Cuba’s music for more than seven decades

Founded by Havana-born bassist and vocalist Ignacio Piñero in 1927, the Septeto Nacional De Ignacio Piñero has played an important role in Cuba’s music for more than seven decades.

Fundado por el bajista y vocalista nacido en La Habana Ignacio Piñero en 1927

Pioneers of son, a rhythmic blend of African and Cuban music that evolved into salsa, mambo and Latin jazz, the group was the first son band to incorporate the trumpet as the main instrument.

Ignacio Piñero’s Septeto Nacional gained worldwide recognition with its performance at the 1928 Universal Exposition in Seville, and was reportedly the first group to mention “Salsa” in a song “Echale Salsita” recorded in 1933. The song composed by Piñero, was adapted by George Gershwin for the opening theme of his “Cuban Overture”.

Since Piñero’s death in 1968, after 41 years at the helm of the band, the Septeto Nacional De Ignacio Piñero has been led by a series of leaders.

Guitarist and composer Rafael Ortiz, who took over after Piñero’s death, bequeathed the position to vocalist Carlos Embale in 1982.

After leaving the group due to illness in 1998 Embale’s leadership was inherited by guitarist Richard Aymee Castro. True to their original musical roots, Ignacio Piñero’s Septeto Nacional continues to offer a danceable blend of montano, merengue, bolero, rumba and cha cha cha. Craig Harris.

Ignacio Piñero was one of the Pioneers of Son Cubano

In 1906 he already knew and had assimilated the different toques of the African cabildos that existed in the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo, which he later incorporated into some of his creations.

He began his artistic career with the group claves and guaguancó El Timbre de Oro, later he directed Los Roncos de Pueblo Nuevo, in which he developed as a decimist and director, at the same time he took his first steps as a composer.

From this stage are: Cuando tú, tu desengaño veas, Dónde estabas anoche, El Edén de Los Roncos, Mañana te espero, niña. Later he joined the group Renacimiento de Pueblo Nuevo.

To the folkloric values that Piñeiro cultivated in these groups, he contributed a wider melodic-harmonic development and a greater depth and poetic flight.

In 1926 he was one of the founders, together with María Teresa Vera, of the Sexteto Occidente, with which he made his first tour to the United States in order to record an album with this group.

In 1927 he founded the Sexteto Nacional, formed by Ignacio Piñeiro, director and double bass; Alberto Villalón, guitar; Francisco González Solares, tres; Abelardo Barroso, lead vocals; Juan de la Cruz, tenor; Bienvenido León, baritone and maracas, and José Manuel Carrera Incharte (El Chino), bongo; that same year trumpeter Lázaro Herrera joined the group. With this septet he traveled to New York, where he recorded his first works.

In 1929 he participated with the Septeto Nacional in the Fair-Exposition of Seville, Spain; in that country they were hired as exclusive artists by the company SEDECA, and toured other cities of that country: Vigo, La Coruña, Santander, Madrid and Valladolid; in addition, they performed in the theaters Torero, Jovellanos, the Cine-Teatro Grado, and the cabaret Maicú, all in Madrid. In 1930 he was one of the founders of the National Association of Cuban Soneros.

Pioneros del son, una mezcla rítmica de música africana y cubana

They performed at the Sans-Souci cabaret (1930); in 1931 they performed at the Lavín and CMCG radio stations; in 1932, at the Dos Hermanos Hotel, he premiered Buey viejo; that same year the American composer George Gershwin came to Havana, at the CMCJ radio station he listened to Piñeiro’s son Échale salsita, from which he later used the theme played on the trumpet in his Cuban Overture.

In 1933 he performed at the Fair-Exhibition A Century of Progress, held in Chicago, United States.

In 1934 Piñeiro retired from the septet, which from 1935 was directed by trumpeter Lázaro Herrera. In 1954, Piñeiro reappeared as leader of the septet, with which he appeared on the television program Música de Ayer y de Hoy.

As a composer, Ignacio Piñeiro broke, although he took elements from the form of the oriental son, in which its creators used the quatrain and the tenth; an example of this break is his son Buey viejo, from 1932:

Carretero no maltrates a ese pobre buey tan viejo, que ya doblbla la cabeza por el peso de los tarros, y por senda de guijarros va tirando la carreta, y nunca llega a la meta, término de su dolor.

Piñeiro was one of those synthesis cases that managed to capture, develop and express the full richness of the son.

The structural modifications, the cadence, the rhythm and the use of refined melodies and lyrics, achieved by this creator and interpreted by the Septeto Nacional, make it possible to say that the work of this singular artist, although he did not mark the boundaries of son (which corresponded to the Sexteto Habanero), he did turn it into a son that today we can call classic, which became a model for its further development.

When Ignacio Piñeiro founded the Septeto Nacional, his purpose was to be a high exponent of the Cuban son and its various variants, he himself made use of those variants, composing guajira-son, canción-son, afro-son, so he worked with the elements offered by the oriental son, to which he gave a broader treatment, both musically and literary.

According to Miriam Villa: “If we analyze the organization of the literary text, we observe in his work the formal use of metrically heterogeneous links subjected to rhythm, characterized by the presence of accented and unaccented elements within the system of units that are repeated at intervals between them.

Piñeiro must not have been concerned about the meter in the text as a pattern, since through the rhythm of the composition he achieves the contrast relations, making the change of meter express a change in the thematic movement, either from intermittences or accentuations or sometimes both, which give it different semantic nuances and alternations of tensions and distensions.

And elsewhere Villa states: “Another aspect that in relation to the literary text is reflected in Piñeiro’s creative work is that of the thematic contents; these are shown from a diversification with greater scope in relation to his contemporaries.

His work can be divided into multiple themes among which are love, homeland, philosophical reflection, politics, the bucolic, the infantile, expressed in a variety of forms: satirical, apologetic, humorous and with greater depth than in the sonorous production that preceded him and even with which he shared.

With the Septeto Nacional, Piñeiro appears in the musical short El frutero, and in the film Nosotros la música, by director Rogelio París.

Ignacio Piñeiro Septeto Nacional

Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñero El Son de Altura

El Son de Altura (1998)

Tracks:

Mayeya – No Juegues Con Los Santos (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
Bardo (Bolero-son) (I. Piñeiro)
Lejana Campiña (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
Canta La Vueltabajera (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
Guanajo Relleno (Guaracha-son) (I. Piñeiro)
Esas No Son Cubanas (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
Suavecito (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
Alma Guajira (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
Castigador (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
Échale Salsita (Son-pregón) (I. Piñeiro)
EI Viandero (Son-pregón) (Ernesto Muñoz)
Son De La Loma (Son) (Miguel MGllamoros)
Trompeta Querida (Boleró-son) (Lózoro Herrera)
La Mujer De Antonio (Son) (Miguel Matamoros)
La Cachimba De San Juan (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
EI Alfiler (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
Noche De Conga (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
EI Paralitico (Son) (Miguel Matamoros)

By:

EcuRed

Dj. Augusto Felibertt

L’Òstia Latin Jazz

Also Read: From Cuba El Septeto Son de Nipe vienen Abriendo Caminos

Sitara Son Cuban – Latin Band

North America / USA / Angeles

Sitara Son - Integrants — Sitara Son – Integrants

Master percussionist and singer, Maestro Lázaro Galarraga is a native of Havana, Cuba, now living in Los Angeles. He was a founding member of the premier Cuban music troupe, Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba (1961-62, 1977-82) A world-renowned teacher, performing artist, choreographer and writer of Afro-Cuban music, culture and folklore, he has recorded, performed and taught across the U.S. and worldwide. He is also regarded as one of the great ‘Akpons’ or lead singers in the Afro-Cuban religious traditions and a master of the bata drums.

Guitarist/Vocalist, Jon-Oliver Knight is an accomplished classical guitarist who has toured extensively throughout the US, Central America, Mexico and Europe. He has played countless wedding ceremonies, cocktail hours and receptions and epitomizes the flexibility required to be a wedding guitarist. Jon-O is also in demand for his Vocals and plays sitar (Indian) and cuatro (Puerto Rican) in the band as well.

Bobby Wilmore’s is an incredibly well seasoned percussionist. From drum set to congas, bongos, or anything that Bobby can find that will make a noise, he is sure to captivate with his precision and creativity behind the drum. Bobby is one of the busiest percussionists in California with his unique “good vibes” personality and his astounding rhythmic ability and passion.

Pianist extraordinaire, Matt Amper is not only one of the most sought after Latin pianists on the west coast, but is also an accomplished Jazz and Classical pianist. Matt’s musicality is preceded by his need to dive deeper and deeper into exploring and perfecting his craft which many would say has already reached perfection!

Josiel Perez has performed and toured all over the world with some of the best bands out there. He currently plays Trumpet with SitaraSon among other La based bands. A wizard with his countless percussion instruments, Josiel brings that same skill and creativity to the Latin side.

Together these accomplished musicians form a Band that will astound and captivate you, leaving you wanting more.