Cubafonia Dayme Arocena (Brownswood recordings)

Cuba's new Jazz queen comes into her own in her exquisite UK debut album




by Jose Luis Seijas
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Since Celina Gonzalez, no singer has been hailed the ‘Queen of Cuban music’. Yet I believe Dayme is just becoming that. The combination of an astonishing voice and her deep knowledge of music allows her to go from jazz to rumba with absolute ease. This album is her best so far as she travels through the world of Cuban genres owning each one of them. She still sings some songs in English, which for me didn’t work that well before, but now she is singing in English to the Cuban beat creating a much deeper and better result. 

From her rendition of Manteca and Mambo Na’ Ma to the beautiful bolero Todo por Amor, Dayme do no wrong on this album! It’s a fantastic work also from the production point of view: tight percussion, sumptuous string arrangements and beautiful brass…this is contemporary music at its best, Afro-Latin at heart but reaching out to be more than just that. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

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