Cuban Son Interview: The Puentes Brothers

The Puentes Brothers Interview - Part One

Rose - I came up with the idea of doing this interview because I wanted to help educate people in Toronto who, like me, don't have a Latin background and are still learning what salsa is all about. I can't understand a word of Spanish but love dancing to salsa not just because of the dance itself, but also because I love the music so much. We've heard of so many different kinds of Latin music, but don't know what they are. Pachanga, for example -- I asked my dance instructor if he knew what pachanga was...we both had no clue! So we want to gain an understanding of the music, as well as help to promote our Canadian talent.

Adonis - I would like to start by saying that salsa is more than a type of music. It's more complex and is comprised of many different things. For example you mentioned pachanga and other kinds of music. People play salsa all over the world, in Puerto Rico, in Cuba, wherever, but use different names. Once you get to the technical issues, you'll see that they use different names for the same thing. Most of all, it's music for the soul. You said that you don't have a Latin background. It doesn't matter. When something is good, when something is really honest, the truth is going to get to people no matter where they're from.

Rose - That's what's beautiful for all of us. The one thing we have in common is that we love the music... and we go crazy when we hear it! All the best dancers were at your show. We had a blast, just jamming and partying. It's always nice when you can do it to live music and not just to club music

Adonis - I agree. It's like magic!

François - You said that good music affects everyone, but perhaps some people aren't ready to hear it. In Victoria for instance. Are their ears ready for it?

Adonis - The world is perfect the way it is. It's nice to see things like immigration all over the world. Go anywhere and you'll find Chinese, Puerto Rican, Cuban people. You can find different types of people everywhere. But more than anything, music is a language and if you do something that is totally honest, you can touch people's souls, understand?

For instance when I arrived here in 1995, my biggest concern was, wow, I don't speak English! How are we going to survive in Canada? And, nobody cares! Once we got here and started playing, people danced and had fun!

François - Yes. Music is a universal language.

Adonis - As you said, the market is always growing. Sure people need to get "educated." The first time they hear salsa they might find it too loud. I remember the first time I listened to heavy metal rock n. roll. I didn't like it at all. But after you listen to it a few times, it really gets you. Salsa may be there, at that stage.

What I'm saying is that it's just a matter of time. We feel like missionaries of music. We have a mission. Everywhere we go with our music we feel that we have to put our name really high and that we have to do something good. Out of the people who go to Latin dance, there is always someone who goes there for the first time. We focus on these people and try to get to this audience.

François - Especially in a place like Victoria. It's not like Toronto, where there is a large multicultural community with many immigrants.

Rose - Why Victoria?

Alexis - We chose Victoria because it's the perfect place to hide! In the middle of nowhere, right? No, that was destiny, that was life... something incredible that happened to us. We got our record deal in Victoria, and everything happened to us in Victoria.

Rose - Really? Did you go to Victoria because of the record deal?

Adonis - No we were already living there. If we had come to live in Toronto, we would have become part of the furniture, an everyday thing. Being away gives us certain advantages. For instance, we are always new in Toronto. Our face is always new-- until we come back! We have more time for rehearsals, composition, new stuff, whatever.

I believe in God and I believe in destiny. I think that it was meant to happen that way. It's not by coincidence that we found a place to stay, that we found family and that we found all those amazing musicians in a place where nobody knows what Cuban music is.

Rose - So the band that you have here, you're all from Victoria?

Alexis - No. We three here are a team. Jose Sanchez, here, (gesturing to his right) is a percussionist. He used to play with very famous Cuban bands. We started recording our CD in Victoria with Cuban musicians who live there. But for now, it's one step at a time. We're promoting and establishing ourselves, so we just hire musicians for the day. Right now we have Jose here, and... it's enough! (laughs.)

Alexis - Yeah, Jose is really expensive!

Rose - I learned that sometimes singers use whatever band they find in a particular city. They just bring the sheet music, and the musicians learn it.

Alexis - That's the way musicians like Celia Cruz and many salsa singers travel the world. They just bring the sheet music and go everywhere, or they send it ahead of time so the musicians can learn it.

Adonis - But at this time we have to be picky with the musicians, especially when we want to put a show together. It doesn't come through until everybody knows each other, and everybody is confident on stage. We are trying to do something different, in a way. Thank God, salsa is such a big thing around the world--people know it. But we are not playing Salsa, we are playing something more like Cuban son. There are so many people around the world who are doing so well with our music, but we have to teach people that it's a different sound. We are trying to do our music as pure as possible, without other influences.

Alexis - I think at some point we can call it Cuban salsa.

Rose - That's one of the roots for Toronto style salsa. It's more the side to side, rather than back and forth. They say it's more like cumbia style, whereas in L.A., they go backward--and the mambo stuff has more from ballroom.

Adonis - That's right. It makes me happy that all these dance instructors that teach Latin dance still respect the Cuban way to dance. We can fit right in.

François - When you write your music, do you think of the dancers? Or does it just happen naturally?

Alexis - I think there is always a relation between your feelings and the dancers' feelings. I really don't think about dancers when I write, but there is a relation.

Rose - So where does your inspiration come from?

Adonis - I don't know. I believe we all have voices inside of us, and sometimes it depends on the mood. Maybe you have a sad moment, and you sit down and something comes up out about you, and you say...wow!

François - So you write about personal experiences...

Adonis - I think that we are all humans. So my own experience could be someone else's experience. I write about my own things. I don't go to another planet to write about things. We just write about what happens to us. We believe that people have the same experiences...love, the end of a relationship, something like that.

It would be good to add that at some point when we arrange our music, there is a moment when we think about the dancers. We don't want to overload the song with so many effects. We want to create good things and try to keep the groove of the music as much as possible, so the dancers can relax.

Rose - When you played at Allure, you started with slower music, the Cuban son, then you went up-tempo and played faster, popular Salsa music that I recognized from dancing.

Alexis - We also play some covers, but we think they are only being played in Canada by us. Traditional stuff, things from the public domain heard in Cuba. We're really selective about what we play because we want to do something new--and good! Sometimes you find that salsa bands, like some of the ones in Vancouver, all play the same songs.

Adonis - When you make an album and you include other composers, you have to create a mix in the arrangements between composers, otherwise you would be bored. I think you have to mix. That's what makes the difference, when there is variety.

The Puentes Brothers Interview - Part Two

François - When I think of Cuba, I think immediately of son. Are there people in Cuba who don't like Cuban Music?

Adonis - In Cuba there are so many people who like rock 'n roll or who would like to be hippies and who don't like Cuban music. And they don't even know what "hippie" means! You can be a hippie and still love Cuban music.

There was a crisis in the 80s in Cuba when young people didn't want to listen to Cuban music at all. Only American music, and in English -- they wanted to make sure that the words were in English. But for some reason, people in other countries started to catch on to Cuban-style music and when Cubans got feedback, they thought, "Wow, our music is famous around the world!" People in Cuba liked this and started to develop more of an appreciation for their own music. Right now I would like to say that everybody in Cuba dances Cuban music, even though there are still people -- and it's their right -- who love rock 'n roll and other kinds of music.

Alexis - As I said, you can find everything down there. For example, when we were shooting the video here in Toronto, by coincidence -- I don't know what I was thinking -- I started playing something that I learned in Cuba a long time ago by the Toronto band Rush. And I remember the director of the video said, "What are you playing?!!" It was pretty funny! (Here Alexis demonstrates via "air bass" the heavy bass line from a Rush classic.)

Adonis - I'm not kidding! He said, "I want to know where you got that from!!" We told him we have antennae in Cuba! To be a good musician, you have to listen to all kinds of music. Every kind of music is good, as long as it's well done. If you put feeling into it and you believe in what you're doing -- I would say good Cuban music, rock, reggae, whatever -- as long as it's well done.

François - Is there musical snobbery in Cuba? For instance, are there people in the Cuban music community, purists, who look down on son?

Adonis - Yeah. I have friends who graduated from the Music School in Cuba who only play violins, classical stuff, and they are always going through a period where they say "I hate Cuban music, it's sloppy, it's just music from the street." But every time I hear this, I always say to them that it's just a matter of time.

I remember when we were twelve or thirteen. We used to play the nueva trova. It's more like poetry. The music that we were playing was more to say something, you know? And we were playing songs from Sylvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes and people like that. At that point, I remember people in our band saying "I don't want to play stuff from a salsa player or Cuban music or something from a son musician." And we were influenced by all our friends and we said "OK, let's keep playing this".

But at some point in our lives, we started playing Cuban music. And now we realize that this is our language. I don't see myself going to New York to play rock 'n roll for the people in New York or playing the blues in the United States. That's like selling ice to the people in the Yukon! This is what we are. This is a better way of playing music around the world. Being ourselves and doing our music. Roots are strong -- it's in you, it's in your soul. Probably when you were in your mom, you were listening to music... or it's in your parents' genes.

Rose - Well, your father was a musician...

Adonis - IS a musician.

Rose - In your bio you mentioned that you were influenced by stars like Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club, who is very well-known here in Toronto.

Adonis - I remember that before, whenever we gave an interview that question always came up. It caught my attention because I would give a bunch of names and now the only name we ever hear is (laughing) Ibrahim Ferrer!!!

Rose - What other names were there?

Adonis - We had the chance to jam with him at our place because it happened that we grew up across the street from the cultural centre. Every Wednesday night they used to have a Cuban night so they used to hire big Cuban musicians from Havana who would come to our town to play. And people like Alvita Rodriguez, Sylvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes, Selina Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Elmidero Salvador, Carlos Zambalo...all those people came to our place, but it was by chance. They would go across the street for a glass of water or coffee and would find out that there were musical instruments in our house and would want to come over to play them. People would jam with us and that was something good for us. We're proud to say that.

Francois - Where do you see yourselves in the future? Twenty years from now, do you see yourselves playing different music?

Adonis - I don't want to put big expectations about the future in my head. As I said we are missionaries. We play traditional Cuban music. But it's possible that tomorrow...for example my brother used to play in Cuba with jazz bands and Jose used to play in big, big, BIG salsa and son bands...why not, probably tomorrow we might try some experimentation. We might do Cuban music, but say, "tell me your ideas," and combine those ideas to make something new. Music is always in evolution. I believe that if the people who invented traditional Cuban music were still alive, then they would probably be trying something different. If we keep the acoustic instruments and the sound of the tres, whatever we do, we are Cuban and we are going to sound like us.

Rose - What instruments do you use? I know there are up to twelve instruments that can be considered traditional.

Adonis - We use the well-known instruments such as the trumpets, piano and bass. Plus there is the tres -- it's like a guitar but with three pairs of strings. The tres gives a good taste to Cuban music. And the standup bass. Many kinds of music use the standup bass, but in Cuba there is a different way of playing it and my brother knows how to play it well. Plus the percussionists. I would love to say that all those instruments come from Cuba. You know, the conga and all those instruments, they come from Cuba.

Alexis - It's hard to say what is going to happen in twenty years, but what makes me feel comfortable about it is that Cuban music has been famous for a while. And it could be famous for another while...or it could disappear tomorrow. And on top of that, we are musically ready to play whatever is on top. If for some reason, Cuban music goes away, I think we can play something different! (laughs)

François - I think you still have a lot of people to win over.

Alexis - You know how many music schools we have in Cuba -- and how many musicians.

Adonis - One of the good things about Cuban music is that it's always there. It may not be the coolest style, it's not Ricky Martin or whatever, but it's always got followers. We don't want to be a boy band and try to be handsome or cool guys, you know...

Alexis (interjecting, laughing) - Well it depends on what kind of deal we have!

Adonis - Well, if it's a very good deal, I would like to try to lose some weight!

Rose - There are so many different types of artists out there with different types of music, for example, Frankie Ruiz, Wayne Gorbea. Do you listen to other artists and are you influenced by them?

Adonis - Sometimes we turn on the radio and listen to what's happening, but more than that, we listen to what's inside. If you spend so much time listening to other people, then you run the risk of sounding like whatever's on the radio.

Alexis - Want me to tell you the truth? I listen to straight jazz: Jaco Pastorius, John Patitucci, Michael Brecker... and somehow, inside of me, that music turns into Cuban Music.

Adonis - Going back to tradition, for some reason, we are more Cuban here in Canada than we were in Cuba. And I found out that there is a part of the history of Cuba that I don't know. I should know more about my own culture. I'm going back to study, in the musical ways, who was who. How people used to sing in the 20s and 30s. And it's amazing because I'm discovering that many people around the world who are doing so well with Cuba music, this is what they did before. They looked back.

You know, the world is discovering Retro. Everything is going back to its roots. The year 2000 is teaching us that people don't want keyboards, people don't want electronic music. That's good for one night in a night club, but other than that, people like drums, and people like people playing real instruments.

Rose - Are there any Latin stars or musical groups that you would love to partner up with or share a stage with?

Alexis - I would love to share a stage with Celia Cruz. And with Feliciano

Adonis - There's a guy from Nicaragua that I'm always listening to, Luis Enrique, that I'd love to share a stage with.

Alexis - It would be nice with El Gran Combo. We respect them. And of course, probably it's too late...Tito Puente just passed away. People usually ask us if we're related to Tito Puente because our last names are so similar. Sorry, unfortunately, no! (laughing)

François - We should let them go now.

Rose - Thank you very much.

(Note: We had just enough time to interview them just before they had to leave for their live performance at HMV at Mississauga Square One.)