Israel Rojas Fiel

Vocalist and leader of Dúo Buena Fe alongside Yoel Martínez. Composer of all the group's songs. His troubadour training is present in all the lyrics, full of reflection on current reality, with a contemporary sound that allows musical arrangements which inscribe each of the songs within the most varied genres of Cuban music, with influences of pop and rock.

Israel Rojas was born in the City of Guantánamo

a lawyer by profession, he began at fourteen years old to express his need to compose and share with others his ideas about everyday life. In very little time, he developed this talent that at that moment was just a hobby for him, without imagining that in the future multitudes would sing along to those lyrics. In 1999 chance had it that Israel Rojas and Yoel Martínez met at the School of Art in Guantánamo. Israel, in front of a piano, was trying to find the melody for a song he had written. Yoel, with his peculiar humor, proposed to him to be the "crazy one" who could help him. From that moment on, a complicity of intentions and objectives emerged between them. As they accompanied each other they realized they worked well as a duet and that's how at the end of that year Dúo Buena Fe was born. In November 1999, they performed for the first time with the song Intimidad. The result was such that the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), from Guantánamo, their native city, immediately proposed that they become part of it.

In 2000 they had numerous performances in their province and 2001 brought them to Havana to record their first album which they called Déjame entrar. This was their introduction to the capital of the country. The talent and desire to transcend their time meant that the Musicuba Agency of EGREM hired them to be part of their catalog. They were proposed to form as a group, which changed the concept of how they made their music, composed basically by Israel.

The name was born under the premise of combining in two words the life of both, the good faith corresponding to law practice related to Israel's profession, and good faith referring to acts of benevolence that bring luck to one, as happened in this peculiar story.

"We wanted to make music not to live from it, but for it"
affirms Israel Rojas, leader of the group

That's how they began their dream, Israel on the lyrical and melodic part and Yoel doing the arrangements and harmonies. They wanted to mix different rhythms, different from what is characteristic of Cuban music such as troubadour song and salsa. They knew it wouldn't be easy. The strategy, says Israel, was "to start as troubadours, to be part of this movement, to make ourselves known and little by little experiment and become a logical continuation of the best exponents of Cuban popular music". Israel, with his reputation as the talkative one of the duo, has accurately defined his music as eclectic. While its origins must have been heavily influenced by the sound environment of his native Guantánamo and neighboring Santiago de Cuba; accelerated by this wave of the internet and postmodernity, Buena Fe draws much from what has been produced throughout Cuba and universally.

Since its creation Buena Fe performed in troubadour festivals supported by the Hermanos Saíz Association, until one day in 2001, seeing the scenic and musical potential of the duet, the EGREM record label proposed the recording of their first album to be called Déjame Entrar. "Recording an album was the main objective," comments Israel, "the fact existed only in a utopia, in a dream" ...and the process to reach that moment was far from easy. Given this great opportunity, they didn't hesitate to work hard on the arrangements of the songs, incorporating into their themes the instrumental sound of electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming and bass resulting in a style that encompasses pop, salsa and the characteristic troubadour song resulting in a genre called pop fusion.

Very soon they would be preparing for their first concert, something that required great effort and many sacrifices. The first obstacle they encountered was creating a band. The selection of musicians took time, rehearsals were very infrequent and the infrastructure in electronic equipment was difficult to obtain. That didn't stop them and they finally presented a great concert at the Mella theater in Havana.

Songs from Buena Fe on their first album such as Guantanamero, a kind of declaration of faith in their origins, La Zanja, which made the miracle of putting on the national map a foul-smelling and contaminated local stream, Como un Neandertal, which exalts love from the genesis of the world to today's super technological age, and the hits Psicología al día and No juegues con mi soledad; are already from that debut, a display of good taste, intelligent, not ashamed of their "hit" on the popularity charts.

In other performances they have shared the stage with several renowned Cuban artists, including Eliades Ochoa with whom they performed together the song "Guantanamero" at a concert where they presented their second album "Arsenal". In 2002 they had won the award for best new group and the best-selling phonogram of the year. In 2003 at this same competition they obtained the award for best pop fusion album. Cubadisco is the most important annual competition in the Cuban music recording industry. Each year this event is dedicated to a country and a musical genre, and also pays tribute to personalities and artists with outstanding creative work in the field of Cuban music. For this reason, winning a Cubadisco award has high value for Cuba's musical trajectory and demonstrates the quality of the very popular music of Buena Fe.

At this moment Buena Fe is preparing the concert presentation of their CD "Corazonero", a production that reveals the maturity that the Duo has been achieving both in the themes it addresses and in the sound and arrangements.

Those who have followed their history and development closely affirm that the secret of such success and popularity is the close relationship and excellent communication between Israel and Yoel, that from the moment they emerged as Buena Fe, have been not only accomplices, but also best friends, companions, compadres and bearers of a voice that has managed to revolutionize the most current Cuban musical history.

Discography

The live performances of Dúo Buena Fe, of which Israel is the lead vocalist place them in the top positions of popular taste.

The live performances of Dúo Buena Fe, of which Israel is the lead vocalist place them in the top positions of popular taste.

Déjame Entrar (2001)

1- Déjame entrar 2- Psicología al día 3- Como un espejismo 4- La zanja 5- La ventana 6- Guantanamero 7- Como el neanderthal 8- No juegues con mi soledad 9- Puede que sí puede que no 10- El destino de la abeja 11- Para no ver eso 12- Fuego y balacera

Arsenal (2003)

1- Arsenal 2- To be or no te vi 3- Tras tus pies 4- Buen viaje 5- Intimidad 6- Nunca digas nunca 7- Cuando te amo 8- Soñar en azul 9 de noviembre 10- Parque de provincia 11- Propuesta 12- Fin de fiesta

Corazonero (2004)

1- Llegaré, llegaré 2- El duende del bache 3- Cuando tú me faltas 4- Por si las moscas 5- Corazonero 6- Sé de un ser 7- Navegando a la deriva 8- Soy 9- Nacimos ángeles 10- Argumentos 11- Fiarme de ti 12- Dios salve al rey

Presagios (2006)

1- Quién es 2- Contragolpes 3- Das más 4- Nalgas 5- Con hijo incluido 6- Sola va ya 7- El eco de las plazas 8- Sigo cayendo 9- Premoniciones 10- Si la vida pide vía 11- Balada para Mario Conde 12- Gracias por el fuego

Catalejo (2008)

1- Los barcos en el puerto 2- Cada país 3- La primera vez 4- En cueros 5- Lástima 6- Fuera 7- Catalejo 8- Fantasmas 9- A la muerte 10- Mi aire 11- Viernes, Sábado y Domingo 12- Soy lo que veVer más

Israel's Confessions

Key to success: I would say balance, the balance between the different ways of organizing the product. We have tried to make the verse not too light and banal but also not too elaborate and for the music not necessarily to have to be very complex. We seek balance, the way to communicate many ideas with few words, with a level of complexity in the exact dose so that the message reaches the audience as clear and direct as possible...the rest is...who knows...a bit of mystique, of angel, those other things that have to do with popular acceptance, with success which is something we've never sought per se, it has simply come.

Pop music: I don't consider us a pop music duo although we were very satisfied that the album "Arsenal" - our second recording - was classified in that category at Cubadisco 2002. It was a way to demonstrate that pop didn't have to be necessarily banal, nor musically disconnected from our roots, we challenged ourselves to make a pop album but the best pop and that's why we are satisfied that it was nominated in the pop category even though we are not essentially "pop musicians".

Classification: We are musicians with diverse concerns as diverse is the panorama of music made by young Cuban musicians today, that is, we are musicians inclined toward fusion. Our first album - "Déjame entrar" - was more of a fusion album. That album was nominated at Cubadisco 2001 in the debut category where, fortunately, we won the award - you know that as a debut it doesn't compete by genre but by the condition that it is your first recording production - but its content is purely fusion. In the future I don't know how our albums will be classified, but I think the next one, which we are already conceiving, goes in the same vein as the first because it will be more eclectic, more daring in terms of searching for sounds.

Favorite themes: I like the philosophical ones because they are me, the social ones because they communicate me with people.

Finding the truth: No, I'm always in a process of search. Sometimes when I marry an idea and think I have the truth in my hand I discover that I start to repeat myself and write songs that look like the previous ones. When that reality I believed immovable moves and with it my ground moves then the best songs start to emerge, they are the ones that surface when you feel that "uncertainty is the summit for a spirit that never tires of loving" as I say in "Arsenal".