Cuban, soul, rock.
These are the three genres that Alex Cuba fuses to form his own unique style of music.
If you want to check out this Cuba-born now Canadian citizen, you can see him perform songs from his CD "Agua del Pozo" (Water from the Well) Wednesday night at Rumba in Chicago.
I interviewed Cuba, 34, by phone about his musical influences, what it was like recording with Nelly Furtado for her first Spanish-language CD "Mi Plan" and his thoughts on the mega concert organized by Colombian rocker Juanes in Cuba.
At 14, Cuba, whose real name is Alexis Puentes, (no relation to this blogger), started playing electric bass. "I discovered American music, jazz, rock, funk. That had a huge impact on me," he said.
But perhaps his biggest influence is his father.
"My father is my hero. He taught me how to play the guitar," Cuba said. "Through him I got exposed to traditional Cuban music. He is like an encyclopedia of Cuban music."
But Cuba said artists like Michael Jackson impacted him when he was growing up.
"He was a big influence," said Cuba. "I started dancing like him and even dressing like him."
Cuba worked extensively with fellow Canadian Nelly Furtado of Portuguese descent on her first CD in Spanish.
"What Nelly did is what you don't see every day, an Anglo crossing over into the Latin market," Cuba said.
Cuba recording and co-writing songs with Furtado is certainly going to expose him to an even wider audience.
Latin music is growing in popularity and you don't need to understand Spanish to appreciate the musicality and voice of someone like Cuba.
"My music has been created in a country where very few people speak Spanish. I'm talking about Canada," Cuba said. "It goes beyond language."
Cuba left his homeland 10 years ago and became a Canadian citizen by marriage.
Cuba doesn't like to talk about politics in his native country. But he praised Juanes for his recent concert for peace in Cuba, which drew more than a million people.
"To me that concert went beyond the situation between Cuba and the United States. To me that concert speaks more about what is happening today in the whole entire world as you see economies crashing down and people going out of jobs," Cuba said. "We are human beings who come together in order to ensure the future. We have to come together for the good of all of us. That's what that concert tells me."
But Cuba said he prefers not to express his political views.
"I don't live my life in politics. I am a musician. I try to give people positivity," he said. "I think that goes beyond politics, any politics."
Cuba is all about the music and check out the video for "Agua del Pozo."
Filed under: culture, Hispanic, Latin America, music
Tags: Agua del Pozo, Alex Cuba, Alexis Puente, concert for peace, Juanes, Mi Plan, Michael Jackson, Nelly Furtado
