Alex Cuba, libre

Alex Cuba is making curious inroads into the Canadian music scene.

The Cuban expat now living in a remote corner of British Columbia recently covered a Blue Rodeo song in Spanish – with help from Blue Rodeo.

He also co-wrote most of Nelly Furtado's new Spanish-language disc and sings with her on the title track, "Mi Plan (My Plan)."

On Monday, he won a major industry award for world music. This upcoming Monday he opens for U.S.-born Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto at the Sound Academy.

After two Juno-winning solo albums, he has released a third CD, Alex Cuba, on his own label for distribution in Canada and the United States by EMI. "My best to date because of its simplicity," he says of his latest work in his charming low-key way. "In the beginning, I tended to make music that was complicated, but I have managed to become a better songwriter because of how I live in Canada – simply."

Cuba wears his hair in a retro Afro, and grows sideburns all the way to his mouth. His singing voice possesses a luxurious quality and his guitar playing incorporates jazz, pop and other styles into a recognizably Cuban sound – "a natural progression to everything I've done," he says.

Thirty-five years ago, he was born Alexis Puentes in Artemisa, an hour west of Havana. His father Valentin Puentes was a guitarist specializing in a popular '60s style called "filin," meaning "feeling," a ballad form influenced by blues and jazz.

From an early age, with fraternal twin Adonis, Cuba practiced guitar and other instruments, and in 1995 he travelled with his father's band to play a Cuban solidarity concert at Simon Fraser University. Anthropology student Sarah Goodacre helped organize the event. Within months she and Cuba were married and living in Cuba.

In 1999 they resettled in Canada, first in Victoria, then in Goodacre's hometown of Smithers, B.C., population 5,000, on the road between Prince George and Prince Rupert. The nearest city, Vancouver or Edmonton, is a 14-hour drive away.

"People think that to make a musical career you have to live in the city," Cuba explained by phone recently from a tour stop in Cranbrook, B.C.

"But from early in my time in Canada, I saw that in cities, especially for Latin musicians, you were going to end up playing at the same place every Friday and Saturday.

"You would be fine for about three months," he says. "Then people will get tired of you and you end up finding a daytime job because music will not pay your livelihood."

Living in Smithers – "a beautiful community of musicians and artists" – avoids such dead ends, he says.

The couple has three children. Goodacre serves as business manager and runs their label Caracol Records. Two or three times a year, Cuba plays to a full house at the local 300-seat Della Herman Theatre, and at other times tours with a bass player and drummer as the Alex Cuba Band.

In 2006 and 2008, he won Junos for World Music Album of the Year. At the second ceremony, he was sitting with fellow musician Serena Ryder at a songwriting workshop when he thought he spotted Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy in the audience.

"Yes, that's him," Ryder confirmed.

When his turn came, Cuba sang the Toronto band's 1993 song "Bad Timing" in Spanish. Later, at the band's Toronto studios, Cuddy dug out the original master tracks and sang harmony for Cuba on a Spanish-language single of "Bad Timing."

Cuba met pop star Nelly Furtado through connections in Victoria, where Furtado grew up and where Cuba based himself for a while when he and brother Adonis performed as the Puentes Brothers.

Wishing to record in Spanish, Furtado wrote nine songs with Cuba. Seven ended up on Mi Plan, released in September.

"I put my vocal on the title track as a demo," Cuba says. "She told me, `If it's okay, I'm going to keep your voice in there – I love it.'"

Source: thestar.com/