Daymé Arocena - Nueva Era (Japanese Edition) (2015)

Twenty-two-year-old Cuban singer, arranger, and composer Daymé Arocena has signed to Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings.

A semi-professional singer since the age of eight, Daymé became lead singer with the big band Los Primos at fourteen and has performed with Winton Marsalis, among others.

“I was knocked out at her professionalism and people connection,” Gilles recalls about first meeting her. “She is so many things—a serious artist who knows exactly what she wants musically. I love her purity—she is deeply spiritual and involved in her Santeria studies. She is also a total laugh! Yes, Daymé is the truth.”

Nueva Era was recorded in just a few days in London and Havana, Cuba, produced by Gilles Peterson, his longtime collaborator Simbad, and Daymé herself. A strong jazz influence is clear throughout the album, as Daymé was advised by her teachers to explore beyond her classical Latin music training and listen to more jazz. “I started to listen to all the old singers even when I didn’t like them,” she says. “I don’t want to sound like an old woman! The first jazz singer I really liked was Ella [Fitzgerald], because she got me crazy when I listened to her scatting.”