In Havana, Leonid Agutin, the king of Russian pop
The king of Russian pop music, Leonid Agutin, will be making a dream come true when he takes to the stage, performing in Havana, Cuba on Saturday, January 23. The concert features a melding of Cuban and Russian musicians including Cuban flutist legend, Orlando ‘Maraca’ Valle
2010-01-20 | 10:57:34 EST
The king of Russian pop music, Leonid Agutin, will be making a dream come true when he takes to the stage, performing in Havana, Cuba on Saturday, January 23.
Juventud Rebelde spoke with the pop idol as he toured around Old Havana. “I am so nervous —said Agutin—, I don’t know if my heart, bursting with joy, will be able to hold out until the 23rd.”
The concert features a melding of Cuban and Russian musicians including Cuban flutist legend, Orlando ‘Maraca’ Valle, in charge of putting the Cuban musicians together. Agutin met Maraca in Paris but he already knew a lot about Maraca before the meeting. “Every time I asked people about their opinions on Cuban musicians, Maraca’s name would always surface. So I finally got in touch with him and sent him my music. When I found out he would be in France, I organized a concert and invited Maraca to play. When he started to play, everything became crystal clear: he was the person I wanted to play with.”
“Bringing my music to Cuba was always a dream of mine...a small island, but one that produces some of the best music in the universe. When one of my producers suggested filming a documentary and concert in Havana, I told him that it would be the greatest gift to me.”
—Where did your love of music come from?
—“My father always wanted me to become a musician, because he loved music. He was a singer, but in the art world he was more known for his great skills as a manger of several bands. He ‘made me’ play piano. While I was in high school, he enrolled me in a jazz school in Moscow. Five years later, I thank him with all my heart.
Although, I believe that school is for studying notes, while music is learned in life. I decided that I wanted to try to learn how to play all instruments, or at least have a notion of each of them, not to play myself, but to have a better idea of what role each play in the melody in a certain composition.
“As a musician, I opened several concerts in the former Soviet Union for several well-known groups and worked in the Moscow studios as a composer and arranger for several important singers.
I started to create my own style, with Latin American, Spanish and US influences and I began to experiment. All of a sudden I started receiving awards from international contests.”
Leonid Agutin’s first CD, Barefoot boy, revolutionized Russian pop music and his second disc, Decameron solidified his career, confirming that the first album was not just luck, but rather hard work and dedication firmly rooted in formal training.
—Leonid, you studied jazz, why did you decide to work in a more commercial genre of music?
—I don’t know why people think that pop is not a valid musical genre. We tend to forget that we grow up on pop music and it forms an important part of our culture.
I really respect jazz musicians —like Maraca— and I study their work, but I believe I was born with the gift of pop music. Essentially, I think it is about giving the best I have to offer. My pop is intelligent, with very serious melodies and harmonies, and with influences from classical music, rock and jazz. That is why I often play with guest musicians from these genres such as Al Di Meola, with whom I recorded the CD and DVD Cosmopolitan Life, featuring songs I composed.
—Are you looking forward to your concert in Havana?
—Of course, very much. The concert is going to feature a mixture of Russian and Cuban artists, including special guests such as Maraca and Omara Portuondo with whom I will sing an old Russian song called La noche negra, which was written in Cuba...Everyone has told me not to worry that everything will turn out well and that Cubans are very hospitable and positive; but I am nervous for many reasons.
Juventud Rebelde spoke with the pop idol as he toured around Old Havana. “I am so nervous —said Agutin—, I don’t know if my heart, bursting with joy, will be able to hold out until the 23rd.”
The concert features a melding of Cuban and Russian musicians including Cuban flutist legend, Orlando ‘Maraca’ Valle, in charge of putting the Cuban musicians together. Agutin met Maraca in Paris but he already knew a lot about Maraca before the meeting. “Every time I asked people about their opinions on Cuban musicians, Maraca’s name would always surface. So I finally got in touch with him and sent him my music. When I found out he would be in France, I organized a concert and invited Maraca to play. When he started to play, everything became crystal clear: he was the person I wanted to play with.”
“Bringing my music to Cuba was always a dream of mine...a small island, but one that produces some of the best music in the universe. When one of my producers suggested filming a documentary and concert in Havana, I told him that it would be the greatest gift to me.”
—Where did your love of music come from?
—“My father always wanted me to become a musician, because he loved music. He was a singer, but in the art world he was more known for his great skills as a manger of several bands. He ‘made me’ play piano. While I was in high school, he enrolled me in a jazz school in Moscow. Five years later, I thank him with all my heart.
Although, I believe that school is for studying notes, while music is learned in life. I decided that I wanted to try to learn how to play all instruments, or at least have a notion of each of them, not to play myself, but to have a better idea of what role each play in the melody in a certain composition.
“As a musician, I opened several concerts in the former Soviet Union for several well-known groups and worked in the Moscow studios as a composer and arranger for several important singers.
I started to create my own style, with Latin American, Spanish and US influences and I began to experiment. All of a sudden I started receiving awards from international contests.”
Leonid Agutin’s first CD, Barefoot boy, revolutionized Russian pop music and his second disc, Decameron solidified his career, confirming that the first album was not just luck, but rather hard work and dedication firmly rooted in formal training.
—Leonid, you studied jazz, why did you decide to work in a more commercial genre of music?
—I don’t know why people think that pop is not a valid musical genre. We tend to forget that we grow up on pop music and it forms an important part of our culture.
I really respect jazz musicians —like Maraca— and I study their work, but I believe I was born with the gift of pop music. Essentially, I think it is about giving the best I have to offer. My pop is intelligent, with very serious melodies and harmonies, and with influences from classical music, rock and jazz. That is why I often play with guest musicians from these genres such as Al Di Meola, with whom I recorded the CD and DVD Cosmopolitan Life, featuring songs I composed.
—Are you looking forward to your concert in Havana?
—Of course, very much. The concert is going to feature a mixture of Russian and Cuban artists, including special guests such as Maraca and Omara Portuondo with whom I will sing an old Russian song called La noche negra, which was written in Cuba...Everyone has told me not to worry that everything will turn out well and that Cubans are very hospitable and positive; but I am nervous for many reasons.
