In this episode we speak with saxophonist Luis Deniz about his recent Juno nominated album El Tinajón. This hauntingly beautiful work features a great mix of Cuban-Canadian and Canadian players. Luis speaks about his move to Canada and his perceptions of music making in two very different countries.

In this episode, we continue to explore Cuban music in western Canada. This time, in Banff, Alberta. Guest host Melissa Noventa explores ¡Afrocubanismo!, an un paralleled festival that brought the biggest names in Afrocuban Culture to Canada in 1994 and 1996. You will hear from festival co-ordinator Andres Schloss and musical co-ordinator Michael Spiro. You will also hear from Cuban faculty members including dancer and singer Ana Perez from Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, along with Antonio Figueroa and Ramses Zamora Molina from Afrocuba de Matanzas. Toronto-based musicians and producers Mario Allende and Luis Orbegoso, also share some of their memories, while Cuban musician, producer and social activist Luis Bran speaks about the social upheaval that was occurring in Cuba during the years the festivals were taking place.

Join us as we explore how the ¡Afrocubanismo! festival was brought to fruition, and we learn about the ways that cross-cultural learning was transmitted, the relationships that were forged, and the impact the festival behind.

This episode features music from Chucho Valdés, Irakere, Ilu Aña, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Angá and Tata Güines, Afrocuba de Matanzas and, the Afrocubanismo CD recorded in Banff.

Special thank you also to Luis Orbegoso for the live soundbites he shared from his personal archive for this episode.

Is there a Cuban-Canadian sound? Alex Cuba has, since 1999, made an extremely successful career in Canada by, as he puts it, “living in the present not the past.” Alex speaks to us about the sound he created from his home base in Smithers, British Columbia, how and why was transformed from Alexis Puentes to Alex Cuba, and how a torn passport sent him on a musical journey. Alex, who recently added a Grammy to a long list of awards, will receive an honorary degree from Queen’s University in October.

In this episode we continue exploring the history of Lula Lounge, one of the most important venues in Toronto for Cuban, Latin and non-Western music. We also consider the importance of dance at Lula. The episode includes interviews with José Ortega, Luis Orbegoso, Tracy Jenkins, Klive Walker and Melissa Noventa and music by Changüi Habana, Yani Borrell, Roberto Linares Brown, Alberto Alberto and Freddy McGregor.

In this episode we’ll zoom in one of the most important hubs for Latin music and culture in Canada: Toronto’s Lula Lounge. For this two-part episode we interviewed Jose Ortega and Tracy Jenkins, the co-artistic directors, and together with Jose Nieves, founders of Lula. We also spoke to two musicians who have been regulars on Lula’s stage since it opened: Cuban trumpet player and composer Alexis Baro, and the Peruvian-Canadian producer and percussionist Luisito Orbegoso. This episode features music from Roberto Linares Brown, Jorge Maza y Su Tipica Toronto, Cache, Luis Mario Ochoa, Puentes Brothers, Alexis Baro, Luisito Orbegoso y Moda Eterna.

With this episode we depart, a little bit, from the path we’ve been following. We’ve been tracing Cuban music in Canada historically over the decades, from the 1940s. This episode features one musician, pianist Hilario Durán, who many regard as the most significant Cuban musician in Canada, past or present. Fortunately, he’s still an extremely active presence in Toronto. This episode features exclusive interviews with Roberto Occhipinti and Jane Bunnett, just two of many Canadian musicians who sing his praises after many years of collaboration.

In part 2 of this episode we'll continue exploring the world music scene in 1990s Toronto. We’ll focus on the impact of Klave y Kongo, a nine-piece, son montuno band that in its early stages didn’t have any Cubans on its lineup. Klave y Kongo’s regular Friday gig at the Cervejaria bar on College Street in the mid to late 1990s created a new space for the Cuban music scene in Toronto. In pre-Lula Lounge times, Cervejaria was the hottest spot in town to dance and listen to live Cuban music, as was documented by Matt Galloway and other music journalists. In this second part, we’re going to hear more from journalist Nick Jennings and Parachute Club’s founder and lead singer Lorraine Segato. We are also going to speak to Jay Danley, who transformed his acoustic guitar into a tres cubano and founded Klave y Kongo together with Blair Martin, Teilhart Frost and other non-Cuban musicians.

In part 1 of this episode, we’ll see how “world music” came to Toronto. We’ll meet some important figures, behind the scenes and on stage, who helped open the door to new sounds and find venues for new audiences. We’ll learn how beer company rivalries helped usher in an era of exciting new rhythms in Toronto, and how innovative promoters and journalists sought out audiences and musical inspiration from the city’s growing immigrant communities, particularly from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. We’ll see how Queen Street West became, for a time, the place to be in the city if you wanted to hear the results of all of this cultural musical mixing. We’ll hear about Parachute Club, a hugely popular Canadian band that brought “world music” sounds to mainstream audiences and airwaves.

Latin American and Cuban rhythms were everywhere in this chapter of Toronto’s musical history. But there was barely an actual Cuban to be found, until a couple decades later. In part 1 of this episode, we’re going to speak to music promoter and programmer Derek Andrews, drummer and academic Vince Maccarone, journalist Nick Jennings, singer and activist Lorraine Segato and Cuban-Canadian street poet and hip-hop artist Telmary. The spirit of Billy Bryans is also a big part of this episode.

Chicho Valle (1924-1984) was, we believe, the first professional Cuban musician in Canada. He arrived in Toronto in 1946 to host the CBC radio program Latin American Serenade. He spent the next four decades popularizing Cuban and Latin American music in Canada: on TV and radio, as well as on the dancefloors of swanky Toronto and area hotels and lounges. He produced three albums, he was the musical director for the Four Seasons Hotel chain in Canada, and later in his career, he ran a successful booking agency. His band, Chicho Valle y Los Cubanos, contained precisely one Cuban: him. Cuban music without Cubans, that must have been a tough gig!

Our first episode of Cuban Serenade includes a beautiful tribute to Chicho, recorded especially for the program, by Toronto based Cuban musicians Magdelys Savigne and Elizabeth Rodriguez from the Juno nominated group OKAN as well as an interview with the Mexican-Canadian musician and ethnomusicologist Brígido Galván.