It was my dad who understood that I\u2019d been born for music. He would have me dance and sing at all the parties and festivities in town, and I loved it. At one of those parties, I was discovered by a sound technician from Cienfuegos. Cielito Lindo, a group directed by saxophonist Enrique P\u00e9rez, was looking for a singer, and without much of a fuss, within a week I was on the way to see how I would do in that band. That was the first big door that opened up for me in music. Enrique took me to live at his house at the age of nine; at the same time, I began studying at the Manuel Saumell Conservatory, and I was separated from my family. Since then, that distance has been the biggest sacrifice I\u2019ve made, and not in vain, because music has filled up all the empty places.<\/p>\n
I enrolled in the National Art School (ENA) right in the middle of the Special Period; those were not easy years, just imagine. I was one of the students who would get in trouble for wanting to play tumbaos<\/em>, and for me it was very hard to not play the sounds of the street. The ENA makes you discipline yourself, take responsibility for yourself, and study.<\/p>\n That was another big confirmation in my life. I was 17 years old, just imagine \u2014 how many musicians wouldn\u2019t have wanted to play with Chucho? I was privileged, and so I enjoyed it, absorbed it, and got everything I could out of it, taking in all the energy around me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How did you join Irakere with Chucho Vald\u00e9s?<\/strong><\/p>\n I and my group, S\u00edcopa, played at the opening of an international course for Cuban popular music that was being held at the ENA. We were the group that represented our school at all of the events, and that day some of the musicians there were Juan Formell, Jose Luis Quintana (Changuito) and Chucho Vald\u00e9s. When we finished, Chucho was the only one who came up to congratulate me and he said, \u201cKid, you have tremendous talent. Would you like to do an opening act for an Irakere concert?\u201d Think about that\u2026.<\/p>\n After that show, he offered me work as a keyboardist and singer with Irakere. That was another big confirmation in my life. I was 17 years old, just imagine \u2014 how many musicians wouldn\u2019t have wanted to play with Chucho? I was privileged, and so I enjoyed it, absorbed it, and got everything I could out of it, taking in all the energy around me.<\/p>\n After Irakere came Issac Delgado, with whom who had a long career as a bassist and musical director. During those first 10 years of your career, what truths did music provide to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Music is continuous experimentation, maturity of sounds and languages. With all of those experiences, I understood that this never ends as long as we try to say things from the heart, with depth and intellect. With harmonic richness and lots of sentiment. With the years you learn that music is about taking the leap, trying, and knowing where I want to go. You assume that we always find different voices, different emotions, different sounds. In its continuity, that\u2019s where the beauty of music is.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 1998, there\u2019s a shift in your life, starting over. What did Spain bring you?<\/strong><\/p>\n It moves me to talk about Spain, inevitably. Music and life are one and the same. Spain gave me stability and the possibility of looking into Cuban music. It was the opportunity to recognize that the entire world worships our music. In that environment \u2014 perhaps cleaner, without social pressure, with more information and access to history \u2014 Spain allowed me to sit down and study, confirm, and verify with the world the validity of our sounds.<\/p>\n Flamenco changed my life, my way of feeling melody and harmony. Flamenco comes naturally for me now. When you spend 16 years living in a country, playing and going all over the world with its music, it\u2019s impossible not to inherit its discipline, the traces of its melodies when you create, the esthetics and architecture of its sounds. Of course, a big influence there was Paco de Luc\u00eda. His constant demands for quality, precision and exactness changed me. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make clean, impeccable music, even its popular, but we\u2019re going to be careful with it!\u201d You know what I mean? That is something that Paco taught me, and that also Spain gave me, along with my daughters, who are the best thing about my life.<\/p>\n How do you translate Paco de Luc\u00eda in your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I am composing, playing. I think the best way to hear Paco in my music is finding the concentration of his work method, his exquisiteness for finish, for observing every detail, even when playing live. Each instrument has its color, its execution, and to the extent that everybody interprets it their way, it creates harmonies, layers and textures. That\u2019s how you have a logic, an orchestra, a voice.<\/p>\n How complicated is it to make Cuban music from somewhere else in the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n One type of Cuban music is known around the world: traditional son, Celia Cruz, the Buena Vista Social Club\u2026. This is like the ABCs for international stages. In real life, timba, the way it\u2019s done in Cuba, is not easy to digest for the passive ear of the foreign public, because it\u2019s the result of mixing jazz, son, American music, funk, rumba, etc. Timba is the evolution of all of these sounds, and that\u2019s something the world doesn\u2019t understand yet.<\/p>\n It was very hard for me. For example, Hablando con Juana<\/em>, my fourth solo album, had a positive response, but not a massive one. Music like what I was making, with my solo project, the way people enjoy it, does not exist outside of Cuba. That\u2019s why I came back to my land in 2015, to strengthen my essence, my core, my language.<\/p>\n Why did you decide to return to Cuba?<\/strong><\/p>\n Before I started recording Hablando con Juana<\/em>, I heard the news of Paco de Luc\u00eda\u2019s death. It made no sense to me to start playing flamenco with someone else; Paco left a big empty space. So, since he loved my music, I decided to come to Cuba and share all of my joy and commitment with my people. When we finished the album I told my producer not to spend a penny on promoting the album in Spain, that we would take the CD to Cuba, and that\u2019s what we did. At first it was really funny, because people wondered if I was Gypsy, Dominican, or Puerto Rican.<\/p>\n I am made out of Cuban music \u2013 it is my roots and inspiration. I feel like a guajiro, a simple guy, and very Cuban. Neither the world nor its most advanced technology is going to change me, and neither will fame or any award. I mean, I\u2019ve experienced some marvelous things since I was very young, and I always come back to the place where I belong spiritually!<\/p>\n Gradelio and Alain P\u00e9rez, the actor and the script?<\/strong><\/p>\n My connection with Dad is more than a bloodline, it is deeper. I\u2019ve had the good fortune to live with a genuine poet of the countryside. He was born with the gift of composing anything from a guaracha in the style of \u00d1ico Saquito to a song with more obscure, poetic language, like something by Silvio Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n Sometimes he used to tell stories that had nothing to do with my own experience, because of my age, but we gradually came to an understanding and were able to make our discourse more mature. People ask me, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you write?\u201d and even though I sometimes give him drafts of my ideas, I always say, I\u2019m like the actor and he\u2019s the one who writes the script of my stories! With my dad, I can achieve other textures, other emotions.<\/p>\n I am made out of Cuban music \u2013 it is my roots and inspiration. I feel like a guajiro, a simple guy, and very Cuban. Neither the world nor its most advanced technology is going to change me, and neither will fame or any award. I mean, I\u2019ve experienced some marvelous things since I was very young, and I always come back to the place where I belong spiritually!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What makes you passionate? What is essential to the music of Alain P\u00e9rez?<\/strong><\/p>\n The rhythm, it\u2019s everything. It\u2019s life itself, it\u2019s waking up and going out into the world. It\u2019s the same thing in music. Everything comes out of the drums, the melody is there in the drums; that tribal thing, folkloric, dance, voices and rhythm. The rhythmic detail is essential to my work. I liked flamenco so much, for example because \u2014 aside from the whole harmonic concept and the devotion of those singers and dancers \u2014 the rhythm opened up for me like a whole new language. It drove me crazy.<\/p>\n A lot of musicians feel the beat somewhere else, they hardly ever agree with me, but I feel the rhythm in the tempos out of place, the weak tempos of the syncopation, the drum, the rumba, that flexibility of dance, the body \u2014 all of that is present in my way of creating. You have to tie yourself to something that defines you, and for me, this is like a hallmark.<\/p>\n Hat, suit and cane. What\u2019s behind that esthetic?<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, I think that the stage is also a place to inhabit with a theatrical concept, esthetics and glamour. I really identify with that Cuba of the 1950s, that way of dressing that somehow goes a little against what is usually seen in the genre. I might wear stylish ripped jeans, but I enjoy that elegance on stage much more. shingle<\/em>, but I enjoy more elegance on stage.<\/p>\n The cane? It\u2019s a nod to Benny Mor\u00e9, of course. I\u2019m not religious, but when I\u2019m making music, I inevitably have to bow down to the greats like Celia, Benny, Juan Formell, Paco. I have to sing to the sentiment of the great ones who motivated me to be who I am. That\u2019s what inspires me onstage.<\/p>\n When you are on stage\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, now that\u2019s crazy. As the years go by, I get more and more connected to the stage. I unfold, I\u2019m possessed by a very wonderful, totally spiritual energy. In Cuba it is a supreme experience, because we have our land and our roots in common, and so that moment of ecstasy is tripled, magnified.<\/p>\n The phenomenon of performers who want to display their technical virtuosity at any cost \u2014 what is your experience with that in your band?<\/strong><\/p>\n First, the concept has to be clear. Who are you playing for? What are you playing? Musicians today should be able to accompany, including in jazz, where there is a broader concept of improvisation. I think there\u2019s a problem with musicians, in general; some know how to perform, but not to listen, and that is annoying in every sense. Not listening can affect the dynamic, sound, cleanness, time and stability of a band.<\/p>\n I have young musicians that I\u2019ve had to pass through a filter first to be able to achieve a simple, profound coherence. Apparently it\u2019s more elemental, but the effect and result that it has for the band, for the song, for the dancer, is totally different.<\/p>\n A musician who plays with me should be broadly trained, because the popular dance music that we do is composed of many elements; it\u2019s deeper, it\u2019s not just tumba\u00edtos<\/em>, as I say.<\/p>\n If you had to create your DNA with music, how would you do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would put African rhythms, jazz, flamenco, the sounds of Brazil, and lots of, tons of, Cuban music.<\/p>\n A trip to the emotional matrix of one of the most recognized artists of the popular dance genre in Cuba<\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[598],"tags":[13,15],"coauthors":[219],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrevistas","tag-alain-perez","tag-son"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/alain-perez-portada.png?fit=1919%2C1242&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_9322-ok.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/h5>\n