Interactivo | Que Lindo Es el Amor | CD Baby Music Store

The latest CD by Cuban band Interactivo, "Que Lindo es el Amor," directed by pianist and composer Robertico Carcasses, is now available online. The album is produced by Dafnison Music, an independent record label from outstanding percussionist Dafnis Prieto, who is based in New York since the late nineties. Previous collaborations between Prieto and Carcasses, together with Descemer Bueno and Yosvany Terry, dates back to the 80s in the art schools where they studied, and later in jazz venues and festivals in Havana and New York in the band Columna B.

Interactivo is part of what I call the Transnational Cuban Alternative Music Scene (TCAMS), a network of Cuban music production, interactions and collaborations among academically trained musicians, songwriters and singers, operating across urban spaces like New York, Miami, Madrid, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Italy, and France, etc., including the island, which emerged after the massive migration of artists and musicians born and raised after '59, prompted by the profound nineties' crisis in the island.

This network of musicians have created a boheme transnational scene, based on their own interpretations and updates of the incredible music made since the 1970s in the island by renown musicians like Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora, Chucho Valdes' Irakere, Emiliano Salvador, Afrocuba (Oriente Lopez), Van Van and NG La Banda, among many others. They eclectically fusion Afro-Cuban music, Timba, Funk, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Brazilian music, Argentinian Rock, and Pop, resulting in an irresistible dance music with conscious lyrics. This generation of musicians have been an important part of the sound production of several Cuban singers and songwriters since the 1990s like Santiago Feliu, Carlos Varela, Xiomara Laugart, Gema Corredera, Pavel Urquiza and Habana Abierta, to name a few.

Please check an interview I made to Robertico Carcasses, Interactivo's director, previously published in Cubaencuentro online magazine in 2012.