Alex Cuba, 1er [cubano] canadiense que gana un Latin Grammy

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press/

TORONTO - There's a little game Alex Cuba and his bandmates play when they're on the road.

They listen closely as some poor soul gets onstage to introduce the Cuban-Canadian musician, inevitably struggling with how exactly to describe his music, a border-busting melange of international flavours.

Then, Cuba and company just laugh.

"We laugh all the time — but there is something cool about it," the 38-year-old Cuba said in an interview this week in downtown Toronto.

"The truth is, nobody really knows what (my music) is. And I trust that time will tell — because it's music, it's gotta fall somewhere at some point.

"But I'm just having a blast seeing what my music makes people feel and how big of a surprise it keeps being for people. And especially people who don't speak any Spanish."

Well, don't expect his typically diverse latest — "Ruido en el sistema" or "Static in the System," which hit stores this week — to necessarily clarify his musical direction.

Continuing where his self-titled, genre-smudging breakthrough began in 2009, the new primarily Spanish-language disc is nominally Latin pop but finds the dexterous guitarist incorporating Afropop, jazz, funk and rock (especially on the fizzy confection "Are You").

In the time since his last record came out, Cuba saw his solo career blossom. The two-time Juno winner brought in a fourth nomination, he co-wrote six tracks on Nelly Furtado's Spanish-language debut, "Mi Plan" and finally, he claimed the best new artist prize at the 2010 Latin Grammys, becoming one of the first two Canadians ever to win the award (along with Furtado, who also picked up a Latin Grammy in '10).

Clearly, Cuba was making inroads into the Latin world — a goal of his for years. But he didn't consciously gear any of his new material toward potential new fans in that part of the world.

"I want to expand and live in a world without borders, and music should not be boxed for a specific kind of people," said Cuba, who has also been nominated for a "regular" Grammy.

"(This album) is a take on musical freedom. It's (about) being yourself and not looking at the market, or what the market's doing now."

And to hear Cuba tell it, living in Canada has been a crucial part of developing that creative freedom.

He first immigrated to Victoria back in 1999, eventually moving his family — he's married with three kids, aged five to 15 — much farther north to Smithers, B.C., where his wife is from.

Back home, he had been a bass player playing primarily jazz or traditional Cuban music. But in Canada, "something came of me," he says.

"I feel that I was able to put myself together in this country," he said. "I started creating this music that I believe in entirely."

Cuba dedicated his new album to Billy Bryans, the Toronto-based Parachute Club co-founder and influential world music promoter who died of cancer in April.

Bryans was a close friend of Cuba's and one of the first Canadians to enthusiastically welcome him to the local music industry. He was one of the first people Cuba would call when in need of judicious advice — for instance, when Cuba decided he wanted to record a Spanish cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," and Bryans told him candidly that it would either be incredibly successful or "incredibly embarrassing."

(Cuba has yet to record that cover).

Bryans was also the first to pick up on how Cuba's point of view on songwriting had shifted since he moved north, from the dance floor-friendly rhythmic focus of Cuban pop to the song and melody-oriented approach typically favoured here.

"He told me, 'You're not doing Cuban music anymore. You're making Canadian music, my boy. You're focusing on the tune, on the song itself,'" Cuba recalled.

But of course, as much as Cuba likes to give credit to his adopted homeland, he's insistent that if he does his job, neither geography nor even language will matter that much.

He hopes "Static in the System" comes through clearly to virtually anyone who listens.

"If I deliver a beautiful melody in my songs, it goes beyond (that)," he said.

"My guitar doesn't speak any language specifically — she speaks all of them."