Daymé Arocena

At just over 20 years old, Dayme Arocena is already a talented and charismatic representation of the most innovative Cuban music. Her powerful voice and her ability to assimilate the most diverse musical currents—especially jazz and Cuban song—combined with her devotion to Afro-Cuban culture, make her one of the most exciting young artists on Cuba's contemporary scene.

At the beginning of her academic music studies, she tried her luck with various instruments such as piano, violin, and guitar, until she decided on choral direction, upon understanding that her voice was her best instrument.

From a very early age she joined various children's groups, and in 2010 she joined the fusion jazz quintet Sursum Corda, with which she participated in tours of Norway and Nicaragua.

After the experience of being part of a big band directed by maestro Joaquín Betancourt, she decided to create Alami, a band made up of only women. In 2013, after participating with Alami at the Jazz Plaza festival, she was invited by Canadian saxophonist Jane Bunnett to join her Maqueque project (with which she continues to collaborate), with which she recorded the album of the same name that won the 2015 Juno Award in the best jazz album category.

Her work caught the attention of the organizers of Havana Cultura, a platform for promoting contemporary Cuban culture, who invited her to be part of Havana Cultura Mix, which resulted in "Havana Cultura Mix- The Soundclash!", an album produced by disc jockey Gilles Peterson, in which he brought together Djs from around the world to work alongside Cuban musicians. As a result, Dayme sang on three tracks, including the successful "U Knew Before".

After her participation in Havana Cultura Mix, Gilles Peterson decided to add her to the catalog of his Brownswood Recordings label, where she debuted in early 2015 with an EP titled "The Havana Cultura Sessions", material which was followed by her first solo album, "Nueva Era", which has captured the attention of the public and specialized critics in Europe and the United States.

She has collaborated with artists as diverse and renowned as jazz musicians Roberto Fonseca and Yasek Manzano, rapper Kumar, and Russian DJ Raumskaya, with whom she recorded the aforementioned "U Knew Before".

She has performed on outstanding international stages such as the Jazz Na Fabrica Festival in Brazil; the Les Voix Humaines Festival in Cuba; the Duc des Lombards and St. Pancras Old Church venues in France and London, respectively, as well as the Worldwide Festival; the Peter Barakan Live's Magic Show; and the London Jazz Festival at Barbican Centre, all of these in the English capital.

At the end of 2015, her debut "Nueva Era" was named by the National Public Radio of the United States (NPR) as one of the best 50 albums of 2015, being an album full of material that redefines the stereotype of what Cuban music is and positions her as one of the representatives of the country's musical vanguard.

Dayme Arocena exhibits a rare combination of youthful energy and very adult composure. She has an easy laugh and radiates warmth; however, the power of her voice and the eloquence of her speech would suggest she is older.

A native of the Diez de Octubre neighborhood in Havana, Dayme emphasizes the weight of her upbringing in the artist she is today: "Diez de Octubre has an important Afro-Cuban influence. I was born and lived there my whole life, so I have a solid foundation in [Afro-Cuban] religion, songs, rituals, and celebrations."

And, as often happens with Cuba, music was also a family matter: "When there was a celebration, my mom and my grandmother would sing and my uncles would play the tumbadora or, if there wasn't one, they would simply find a bucket and a stick and organize a big party." As a child, Dayme was drawn to American music: "I loved Whitney Houston, she was my idol!" On a very different note, her grandmother had her memorize boleros from the 1960s and her father, a big fan of Louie Bellson, insisted that she discover jazz.

Dayme graduated from the music education system as a choral director. She began singing with Los Primos Big Band, sponsored by Joaquín Betancourt, and deepened her relationship with jazz: "The first score they gave me was My Funny Valentine. It was handwritten on a sheet of paper and it was the first time I tried something like that. In general, singers learn songs by listening to other singers. When you don't know how to capture the song, you have to sit down and analyze what the lyrics and music say, how the musicians accompany you, and suddenly you're singing jazz with an interpretation that is your own."

A few years ago, Dayme formed an all-girls jazz band called Alami. "Since I started doing jazz, I've realized that I was always the only girl in the group. So I said to myself: 'What about the women?' It's really not a question of feminism, but of balance." Three years ago, Alami was in the middle of a performance at the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival when a mysterious spectator armed with a baritone saxophone shouted: "Long live women!", before joining them for an improvised session. It turned out that Alami had unknowingly shared the stage with Jane Bunnett, a Canadian jazz artist who had been working with Cuban musicians, some of whom were connected to Dayme, for decades. They stayed in touch and Dayme eventually received an invitation to go to Canada to perform. An album titled Maqueque was the result of the collaboration between Jane Bunnett, Dayme, and other female voices from Cuban jazz.

In May 2014, a group of emerging electronic artists traveled to Havana with BBC radio host and globetrotter Gilles Peterson to produce original tracks with Cuban musicians for a new album in the Havana Cultura series. To familiarize themselves with the voices they could work with, the producers attended an open microphone session at the emblematic Bertolt Brecht concert hall. After several performances, Dayme, barefoot and dressed in white, took the stage and stole the show. "She's a phenomenon," says Gilles Peterson. "She could have done that performance on any radio station or television program in the world!" Not only did she record four tracks with producers from Russia, Chile, South Africa, and Switzerland, but she was also invited to London to perform at the launch of the Havana Cultura Mix: The Soundclash album. While in London, she also recorded a solo album with Peterson's record label, Brownswood.

"I have a very strong voice, speaking clearly. But when I sing, I also want people to appreciate the beauty of nuances and subtlety. I think when I combine strength and intelligence is when I achieve my true style as a soloist," Dayme reflects before breaking into a chant that invokes Yemayá, the Yoruba deity of the sea.