Bio:
Drawing on a rich musical heritage and a comprehensive artistic education, the critically acclaimed Cuban singer and songwriter Diana Fuentes could be one of Latin music’s best-kept secrets.
But in 2019, Diana is taking her place a top emerging artist, and Latin music lovers will get to enjoy her highly anticipated third solo album, titled Libre. It is her first LP since Planeta Planetario in 2014.
We got a preview of Libre in 2017, with two singles that are included on the album – “La Fortuna,” featuring the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Tommy Torres, and “La Vida Me Cambió,”featuring the Cuban duo Gente De Zona. These songs became low-key treasures, discovered by enough listeners to chart at #29 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Songs and #10 on Tropical Songs, respectively. Even better, “La Fortuna” was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2017 Latin GRAMMYs®.
During 2018, Diana Fuentes stayed on our radar as a special guest on singles by Cuban talents El Micha and Lenier.
In April 2019, she released Libre along with the title-track third single. “Libre”is a contemplative song that speaks of the need to turn the page on life’s stages even when it means saying goodbye. Filmed in Havana by the talented Cuban director Yeandro Tamayo, the music video features plenty of local color.
Diana Fuentes explains that the album's title is personal: “I'm free in my music, in my life, in my ideas…free to be able to decide what should and should not be part of my life.”
This album furthers her reputation for making satisfying amalgams of traditional Cuban music with up-to-the-minute rhythms and themes, along with lyrics that speak to young listeners.
Produced by the multiple GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY® winner Eduardo Cabra, Librealso features creative collaborations with the Brazilian great Seu Jorge, the Dominican singer and songwriter Vicente García, and the Cuban sax legend César López.
Diana Fuentesbegan her artistic career as a girl in the Laura Alonso Ballet Company. From there, she continued on to the prestigious Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory of Music and finally to Cuba’s National School of Art, where she studied choral direction. Upon completing her education, she joined the Afro-Cuban fusion group Síntesis, remaining a member from 2001-07, and participating on the group’s album Habana a Flor de Piel, which was nominated in the 2002 Latin GRAMMYs® for Best Contemporary Tropical Album.
During the same period, she worked with the Cuban singer-songwriter X Alfonso, appearing on his album X Moré, which was also nominated in the 2002 Latin GRAMMYs®, for Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album. In addition, she served as a guest vocalist on tracks by such standout artists as Amaury Pérez (“Algo en Común”), Roberto Carcasés (“Mambo”) and Aldo López Gavilán (“Talking to the Universe”).
She contributed to Cuba Canta a Serrat, a Cuban tribute album to the Barcelona-born singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat. Furthermore, Diana appeared with the iconic Cuban singer Omara Portuondo on producer Roberto Carcasés’ album Women are Beautiful, and with the legendary vocalists and composers Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés on producer José Luis Barba’s album Cubans.
These collaborations led to a fortuitous meeting with the producer Descemer Bueno, who offered to record her first solo album Amargo Pero Dulce(Bitter But Sweet, 2008), which is influenced by R&B, pop and soul. With her second album, Planeta Planetario (Planet Planetarium), Diana Fuentes began to garner more international recognition. She still remembers her first visit to the United States, in 2010: “The first time I came was on tour with the Cuban singer Carlos Varela. He undertook an intensive tour of the United States.” Now this Havana-born artist resides in Miami where she is poised to make even bigger strides toward widespread acclaim.
Libre is a family affair, with important songwriting contributions from her mother, Mirta Lavastida. Diana Fuentes is convinced that family support has been key to her growth: “I come from an outstanding matriarchal family. My grandmother Aurora, who also appears in the ‘Libre’ music video, has taught all of the women of my family to take the reins of our lives, with great respect but also great determination.”
Diana adds that she is passing this example on to her young son: “My life’s most important work is that of a mother, and it takes all of my time, primarily because I want to be a mother that my son will be proud of. But I notice that my son is so happy when he sees me making music. That helps me, and gives me great fortitude to keep developing my career.”
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).