Santiago de Cuba.—The Septeto Santiaguero is still celebrating their 2015 Latin Grammy, in the category of Best Tropical Traditional Album for No quiero llanto. Tributo a los Compadres, recorded in collaboration with Dominican José Alberto “El Canario”, and it’s not easy to catch the group’s members, but thanks to the efforts of manager Alden González, an interview with the happy band leader, Fernando Dewar, was arranged.
This is the first time multiple Cubans have won Latin Grammys, and that a group from the island performed during the awards ceremony. Tell us about the audience reaction.
It was very exciting to see the professionalism of the Lizt Alfonso Company and the positive audience reaction to their excellent, perfect, performance; it made one feel very proud to be Cuban. Although I should add that, in 2013, when we were nominated, there was a similar emotion and pride when we witnessed Descemer Bueno’s performance in the ceremony, along with Enrique Iglesias and India Martínez.
What does this Grammy mean to your career, and especially for Cuban traditional music?
It’s a milestone in our career, the greatest thing that has happened for us. The award definitely marks a before and after. It is very important for our association of soneros and practitioners of traditional music, since it demonstrates that we make music for the present, for todays’ audiences. We have received congratulations from our colleagues in many parts of the country, and it truly gives us great joy to have represented them this time.
Your presence at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, allowed you to develop relations with artists who may be interested in visiting Cuba.
This was an ideal environment for interacting and building relationships with colleagues, but above all it allowed us to organize José Alberto, El Canario’s visit to Cuba, to perform the disc’s repertory, just as we just did in the Copacabana in New York. In September of 2014, José Alberto predicted this prize right here on our Heredia Street, and we want to perform in the same place with the prize in our hands. This should be next January.
Additionally, we are already working on our new CD, and we were able to speak with a group of important collaborators onsite there, regarding this next production. What I can tell at this point is that, this time, the collaboration will go beyond the tropical music arena. There are international stars in urban music, as well as pop and rock interested in collaborating with us.
Do you think Cuba’s presence at these types of events will become more common now that diplomatic relations with the U.S. have been reestablished?
Interest in Cuban music was already notable before the thaw. In fact, everything we have done to date was planned before December of last year. We are sure that, yes, in the future there will be a much greater Cuban presence at the Latin Grammys.
After this success, what projects are coming up?
Coming soon we’ll be in Colombia, and in January, most likely, our national tour will come together, something that has us all very happy. We will also be in the studio during the first part of the year, to finalize the new CD, which will be entirely with EGREM.
