Interview with Luis Mario Ochoa


Q: You were born and raised in Cuba. Why did you relocate to Canada and not to the USA for example?

Luis Mario Ochoa: I came to Canada from Cuba in 1990. I always wanted to be in a place where I could musically and personally do whatever I wanted to do, without having to answer to anyone. So, when I came to Canada (performing with a trio of traditional Cuban music), I decided that this was a great place to build my new life. A year later, my parents were able to leave Cuba too (they relocated to Miami, US). Today I am proud to have US landed immigrant status as well as Canadian citizenship, but I will never cease to be a Cuban, regardless where I am and where I go, and I am very proud of that.

Q: Who has influenced you musically and which of today's musicans keep influencing you?

Luis Mario Ochoa: My first musical influences came from my father; he started teaching me guitar when I was around 7 or 8. He is a guitarist and vocalist, and was founder of Trio Voces de Oro, one of Cuba's most notable romantic trios, a beautiful Cuban and Latin American musical tradition that unfortunately has not been recognized these days as it should.
My parents realized that I was taking music a little more seriously than they had expected, and at the age of 11 they enrolled me in a conservatory to study music full-time, so I did 13 years of non-stop classical guitar and general music studies. Classical was the only music that one could study in the Cuban music schools in the 70s and 80s. However, I never stopped loving my popular music roots. Aside from romantic trios, I listened as much as I could to old records of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, I liked that romantic period of the music in the USA very much.
I also enjoyed Brazilian music and the Bossa Nova movement. In Cuba we had a similar movement called Feeling, made up of composers and singers that interpreted very romantic boleros and I also liked that very much. We Cubans in particular and Latins in general are a very romantic and passionate people, it is part of our idiosyncrasies and culture and that's one of the things that non-Latin people either love, or hate about us.
Then the fusion sounds grabbed me, with perhaps the musician that influenced me the most in my youth: Brazilian composer, pianist and arranger Eumir Deodato. The sound of electric pianos fascinated me and the music of Stevie Wonder, and pianist/composer and arranger great Clare Fischer were a big part of my growing up as a musician.
In Cuba, groups such as Irakere, Afro-Cuba and Los Amigos also created a great impression on me. And in the very early 80s when I discovered Celia Cruz, a renewed interest in my Cuban dance music traditions knocked on my musical doors.
In guitar, there are several players that I admire from the classical world such as Andrés Segovia, John Williams, Leo Brouwer and Alirio Díaz, to jazz with Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery and Grant Green, as some of the ones I enjoy and from whom I have learned the most.
My style of music is very Bop oriented; however, I believe that those musicians, composers, singers and arrangers I just mentioned, were the ones that influenced my style of music the most as a singer, guitarist, composer and arranger.
Today I listen to many things: from classical, to jazz, to salsa, to pop and beyond, admiring the works of other composers, arrangers, and performers, without having to be exactly influenced by them. Now it is time to use all the experiences accumulated during those long years of studies and integrate them into my personal sound. That doesn't mean that I am not learning something new every day, but now I think I have developed my own style.

Q: What was the music scene in Toronto like when you arrived there in 1990? And how did it change from then to now?

Luis Mario Ochoa: Toronto has always been a great city for music, but back in 1990 when I came, the Latin music scene was very limited. I think there was only one other Cuban musician living in Toronto, so it was very difficult to start teaching the "how to" to musicians that loved Cuban and Latin jazz, but who didn't know anything about it. Also, Canadians in general were not as interested as they are today in Latin music.
Then in the late 90s the great Cachao was internationally re-discovered and later came the Buena Vista Social Club following the success of Cachao, and the rest is history.
Today there is an explosion of great young Cuban musicians arriving in Toronto and staying here, so Cuban music is enjoying a great deal of popularity around the world and in Toronto in particular. There is now a huge Cuban community living in Toronto and it grows each week. (ahhhhhh!!!!!) :-)

Q: Please tell me how you formed your band Cimarrón and which musical vision do you share with your fellow musicians?

Luis Mario Ochoa: I founded Cimarrón about 1992. It was a seven-piece band back then. There were only 2 Cubans in the band, myself and a conga player, the rest were very nice new friends that loved the music, but didn't have much experience with Cuban sounds. We performed in festivals and Latin Clubs, and then we recorded our first CD, A La Cubana, in 1995.
Then the band grew to a 13-piece salsa orchestra and we put together a second album entitled La Fiesta. Large orchestras were much more popular during the height of the Salsa movement. The band featured 6 horns and 3 percussionists, plus 2 back-up vocalists, piano and bass. The guitar was not featured in that particular recording. After that, I came back to what I really wanted to do: sing, compose, arrange and play my guitar, and now we are a 9-piece band (still large) but I love this format because of its great flexibility, it allows me to do many things.

Q: You've recorded Alma Con Alma with your father. What was it like working with him?

Luis Mario Ochoa: I never performed with my father before, so it was a great experience. He's my biggest critic and knows the style very well, but I was ready and we did well together, the voices blend nicely and we are very happy with the final product.

Q: Your recent album Cimarrón is only the third release. Five years gaps between album releases are quite long. Why have there been such long hiatus?

Luis Mario Ochoa: Well, as an independent producer, funding is always an issue. In order to complete a project and do it well, it takes money that doesn't come easy.
I am constantly composing and arranging. I have material for 5 more CDs all original, and perhaps another 5 CDs of original arrangements of Cuban, Latin American and North American standards. But it is a matter of funding, and with this one, I went the extra mile. I arranged all the music, performed on it, composed half of the repertoire, produced it; then hired a publicist and radio promoter to help get the CD to the right places. I think I did something right because it got to you and your readers. :-)
I would like one day to be able to record all that material, as well as the things I have in mind to write down, but it will depend very much on how this CD does. I am hoping it will get great reviews like the one you did, lots of air play and buzz, to gather interest and sell lots of records, so that I can keep on producing new ones even if they take me 5 years (better late than never, and I am a very positive guy).

Q: I suppose Cuban Music Productions is your own company. The latest album involved twenty musicians. How did you handle the financial risks? After all nearly two dozen musicians certainly cost some money.

Luis Mario Ochoa: Cuban Music Productions is my own new company. It used to be called Cimarron Music Productions, but it was very difficult for non-Spanish speakers to get the spelling correct, so I went with www.CubanMusicProductions.com because my name also gets misspelled often. I had to make things as easy as possible for those who want to reach me. By using Cuban Music Productions, the wrong spellings are not an issue any more...or so I hope :-)
Regarding the amount of musicians I hired for this recording, perhaps I went a little too far, but for me friendship is more important than money, and it was my money. If it would have been someone else's money, I would have been extremely conservative with it. However, I wanted to have all my friends with me on this CD. All of these guys have been part of Cimarron over the last few years, so I wanted each of them to be in this project. The financing was a struggle but somehow my wife and I and our "good friends at the bank" came up with a solution; however we may be homeless soon, so maybe we will head for Germany. Is real estate cheap? [Ha, ha, your welcome over here but unfortunately I don't have a large fortune to invest so I know nothing about real estate prices over here in Germany - Dirk]

Q: How content are you with the feedback you get to Cuban Music's three releases so far? And how easy or difficult is it for you as an independent musician to get recognition in the music business?

Luis Mario Ochoa: The responses are better every time, I learn and keep on learning. With this CD, the reaction has been immediate and very positive, so I am very optimistic; I am a very optimistic person and believe in good luck: The harder I work, the luckier I get. Did I mention that I am a workaholic?
Nevertheless it is very hard for us independent artists or musicians (whatever we are called). We have to do everything on our own and then, have to compete with companies that have large budgets and lots of resources, but thanks to the internet and the new recording technologies, independent artists are getting things done and are able to reach places that were just a dream before. Direct communication to consumers is now possible online, and independent artists are putting together products that can compete in quality with the big productions and can challenge the status quo. For instance, Maria Schneider, an amazing arranger and composer (independent artist as well) was nominated for a Grammy and won an academy award in 2005 in the Jazz category. She sells her works on the internet. She is one of my heroes! That was very encouraging to me and many others that have managed their own career. We can do it! Now independent artists have a better chance to see the fruits of their labors, because their supporters know that when they buy their CDs, the profits will go right back to the artists, that in exchange, will keep on producing new works.
It is very difficult nevertheless and I encourage independent artists to get well informed before they commit themselves to a production. They must learn that recording a CD is only the 25% of the deal, then comes distribution (in my case on-line) another 25%, marketing and promotions 25% more and finally 25% of good luck!

Q: As you may have read in my review I had my difficulties with your "spanglish" version of Old Devil Moon. Please tell me why you decided to sing it that way and not for example in Spanish?

Luis Mario Ochoa: I perfectly understand that I am not going to be able to please everyone on the planet; however, the tune was done 100% in a Latin way with the exception of the lyrics and I think that because it was done with a total Cuban groove, the Latin accent adds-in flavor, instead of taking away. Besides, Old Devil Moon is a great song and writing a Spanish version would do a disservice to the tune...
I have been playing this tune live in Canada for over 3 years and audiences love it! And I have been getting requests for years to include an English tune in one of my productions, so here it is.
Many English speaking artists have done songs in Spanish, not only with accents, but with bad and wrong pronunciation of the words, most of the time not even knowing the meaning of every single word they are saying; nevertheless most listeners pay more attention to the interpretation than to the way they pronounce the lyrics. What can you tell me about Opera singers? They have to sing in whatever language the piece was written in! Poor guys, but they do OK.

Q: What can we expect from you in the future and do we have to wait another five years until you release a new album?

Luis Mario Ochoa: Dirk, I hope the waiting time gets shorter from now on my friend. It depends very much on the success of this CD. As I mentioned before, there is a lot of material waiting to be recorded and I hope those who like my music, buy the CD; man, my future is in their hands and whether my other material gets recorded or not. I hope they will like what they hear on my website www.CubanMusicProductions.com and give the CD a try.
So, let me use this opportunity to thank you and your readers again and to invite all of you to visit me online and listen to the CD, and when you are there, please send me a note telling me what you guys think and say hello from afar. Keep warm, my friends; it's freezing here in Toronto.

For more infos visit cubanmusicproductions.com, cdbaby.com and read my review of Cimarrón.