Originally broadcast on Vocalo 91.1FM
Today’s featured profile is all about Afro-Cuban singer, director, and composer Dayme Arocena.
Dayme is from the Diez de Octubre neighborhood in Havana which formed a strong base in her life when it comes to Santería, its rituals, and celebrations. Growing up she was drawn to pop music and artists like Whitney Houston, her idol, but she also learned about boleros through her grandmother who had her memorize them.
While she studied to become a choir director (by the way, she was accepted into one of the most prestigious schools at age 9!) she also studied folkloric music, dance, and religious sounds which created an even richer context to her art. While at school, and encouraged by her father’s love of the genre, Dayme signed up to sing with the school’s jazz band.
In press material, she says, “I was around 15 years old. That was the moment I discovered Mongo Santamaría and Chano Pozo, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Jazz was really healthy for me because I used to listen to a lot of pop, toxic music. Those artists saved my ears and, really, my life.”
She formed an all-girl jazz group, Alami, and was also part of the all-female Jane Bunnett group Maqueque. Soon after, her first albums as a solo artist debuted. This was in In 2015 when she appeared on The Havana Cultura Sessions and Nueva Era.
Dayme Arocena is able to bring together the Cuban sounds and culture she grew up in and produce exhilarating new music with jazz. Her albums are released on Brownstone Records, with help from Gilles Peterson who she met in 2012. Together they explored rumba culture for the Havana Club Rumba Sessions producing a feature-length documentary along with an album – using her distinctive vocals.
In 2017 she released Cubafonia and in her latest album, SONOCARDIOGRAM, Dayme directed the recording in a repurposed artist’s studio in Havana. It’s a jazzy tribute to her culture. She says: “That’s my mission in life, and that’s why I came into this world: to help create a new view of Cuban music and this new generation of Cubans.”
