
If you like alliteration, get ready. Coming soon is a Cuban-Canadian and classical collaboration concert in Calgary! Okay, cheesiness aside, it’s an exciting concept: Alex Cuba, renowned Cuban-Canadian musician, is joining the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra on stage, Feb. 10.
“I really like the symphony shows, it feels amazing,” Cuba says. “It’s feels like so much vibrancy and depth and light. It sends you to a beautiful, spiritual level.”
The Smithers, BC-based musician has won two JUNO Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy Award. He’s traversed the world touring and worked with many high-profile musicians. Lately, he’s been holed up in his new home studio in Smithers before launching on a tour of northern BC.
“It’s actually good that I’m on tour,” he says, from Haida Gwaii, his latest stop. “The studio was becoming too intense. I was, like they say, burning the candle from both ends, pulling all-nighters in the studio, starting to feel tired.”
He’s working on two albums at the same time. One called Voices of My Family, featuring the voices and music of his family members, one of his own music.
“Life is beautifully busy, let’s put it that way,” he says.
The studio is a long-held dream, realized. “It didn’t make sense for me to have a studio and not use it, being on tour all the time,” he says. “But things have changed now, I have more control from my end now, touring in a more organized way that allows me to take this step of having a professional studio.”
His own album is going to be made up of solo songs. It’s his 10th album and he’s infused with a new energy. “The songs that I’ve been writing, they are fiery, they have something in them that I’m really excited about.”
He’s also moving into solo touring. “It’s a bit of a revolution for me,” he says. “It’s a challenge to be just you on stage but it also feels very whole for me. It definitely shows your musicality, nine albums to play from and just you on stage.”
He’s looking forward to his time in Calgary where he will very much not be on stage alone. “It’s a lot of fun because you’re used to being solo but this is with a big, let’s put it this way, mattress behind me that I can lie on.”
It should be a fun night, he says. “It’s a very unique way to experience what I am proudly now calling Cuban-Canadian music.”
Alex Cuba and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra are at the Jack Singer Concert Hall, Feb. 10. Details here.
“Tiene Sabor” from the upcoming album Voces de mi Familia/Voices of my Family, featuring Cuba, his father, Valentin Puentes and brother Adonis Puentes.