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Alex Cuba Hits New York City
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Daily News, Alex Cuba Hits New York City >>
By Gene Santoro
The hottest avatar of young Cuban music lives in a small, icy town 14 hours north of Vancouver.
Alex Puentes grew up in Cuba, where he played every type of music, from traditional son to fusion. "But," he says, "I had to come to Canada to find myself creatively."
Since renaming himself Alex Cuba a few years ago, the 33-year-old singer- songwriter has snared two Junos - Canada's Grammys - for a pair of solo albums. In a striking departure from typical Cuban fare, his music drops the expected blaring horns, furious tempos and dense charts. Instead, it blends Afro-Cuban rhythms with pop love songs that recall Lionel Ritchie's hits, spicing the spare arrangements with jazzy improvisation and romantic vocals.
Tonight at Joe's Pub, Cuba's trio unveils his CD "Agua del Pozo," the newest twist on the artist's long and winding story.
His father, Valentin Puentes, a guitarist and music teacher in Artemisa, Cuba, trained his twin sons, Alexis and Adonis, in his island's indigenous sounds from the age of 3.
But Alex got glimmers of different musical worlds early. "When I was 11," he says, "I was Michael Jackson, dancing and singing. When I was 14, I started playing bass, which got me into jazz-funk because of [bassists] Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Miller."
At 18, Cuba won a national songwriting contest. But he started to feel that his creative possibilities were too limited in his politically isolated homeland. "With all the fabulous training of musicians in Cuba, since 1959 more and more the music speaks only to musicians," he says. "It's all flourish and flash. The first time you hear it, wow! Then the next time and the next, you hear how it's formulaic. There's no room for melody."
In 1999, he fell in love with a Canadian girl, became a Canadian resident and married her. Now they have three kids and live in her small hometown, Smithers, where tropical-born Alex spends a lot of time shoveling snow. "Living in Canada gave me perspective," he says.
Initially collaborating with brother Adonis, Alex soon chucked traditional Cuban music, went solo and changed both his direction and name.
"Thirty was my turning point," he recalls. "I realized I didn't have to aim at the Latin market, because I'm in Canada. I can play four or five shows a month and be okay financially."
Hence his moody 2006 debut, "Humo de Tobaco." The single "Mismo Que Yo" became the first Spanish-language tune to break into the U.K. Top 10. "Agua del Pozo," mostly recorded live in the studio, is poised to be his next step.
"My father always told me I couldn't sing like the soneros, so forget it," Alex says wryly. "Now he's changed his tune." 05/12/08 >> go there
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