San Francisco/Bay Area Salsa & Latin Jazz: Interviews: Eliades Ochoa

Eliades Ochoa: A personal style

His signature cowboy hat and his unique style of playing the guitar have made Eliades Ochoa hard to miss, whether touring with the Buena Vista Social Club or with his own group, Quarteto Patria. After a packed house at Slim's last October, I caught up with Ochoa for coffee and an interview the next day.

Q: Give us a little history about your music.
Eliades Ochoa: Well, we came to Santiago, Cuba at a young age, very young. I’ve always played the guitar…and sang. It’s something that comes from being a farmer, and being aware that even as a child, I helped my father work on the land whenever it was harvest season. So, I started at a young age to play in bars in Santiago, Cuba and collect quarters, tips. I did this to support my family in a dignified manner since there were six siblings along with my mother and father, and no one had a job. My sister is the oldest of all and I am the oldest brother. My father was married once before and had three children, and they are a lot older than we are since my father did not re-marry until fifteen or twenty years later when he married my mother. So I followed that pace until I was hired on a radio station in Santiago,Cuba as a professional [musician] in ’63.

Q: Did you start a band?
EO: Yes, the Trinchera Agraria band. That band and that program both had the same name. It was a program dedicated to the Cuban farmer where we played music. Eliades made music: the ‘son’, the guaracha, the guajira, the same thing Eliades does with the Quartet Patria, I did with the Trinchera Agraria band - - a band of which I am founder, we created it, Raul Valvalru, Eliades Ochoa. So, I was there until ’70, and then I went to Troba. There I was the founder of the quintet La Troba. I worked a lot with Roberto Rosel laying down musical tracks.

Q: You never went to school?
EO: No, I’ve never been to any type of school. Never gone to school. I am, as they say, self-educated. The little I know, I taught myself. What I graduated from was the University of the Streets.

Q: That can be a stronger kind of education
EO: But honestly, I’ve never gone to music school, I’ve never taken voice lessons. And as far as higher education, I did little of that as well. I improved myself - - I’ve been improving my life by my own efforts and knowing that in order to make something of your life you have to struggle. Well, and it looks like life has rewarded me for that effort because these days I feel like I’ve been congratulated. I am very happy about the way the fans embrace me. And I think about the people who don’t know much about cultures, people who haven’t been to music schools, people who haven’t taken voice lessons, there are people who like to hear Eliades Ochoa sing. People come to see how I play, they way I play my guitar - - with my own style, my brand, because I don’t play like anybody else. And well, that fills me with great joy. It seems to me that Mother Nature has granted me with this - - the effort I have made throughout my life since my youth, since I was a child to this point in my life.

Q: And is it true that in ’78 you joined another group as a director?
EO: Director? No with Trinchera Agraria in ’63; Trinchera Agraria is the band I started in ’63, and I am the director, singer and guitarist as with the Quarteat Patria. 1978 is when I started with the quartet Patria. And I started as a singer, guitar player and director. Quarteta Patria was handed over to me in 1978.

Q: Have you only worked as a musician, or have you done anything else?
EO: No, I’ve only been working as a musician for many years now. Just a musician, just a musician [Laughter]. The musician has to be a musician. A musician cannot be a carpenter and musician or a driver, with a house and a musician. You have to dedicate yourself because it is that at any point you might have to do something else, right? I’m not against anybody who is doing both, but if your musical life is going well, what you have to do is work on it to perfection so that you get good results, as it should be. But, that is, if things are going well. If things aren’t so good, and you have to play guitar at night and drive a cab by day, well you gotta do what you gotta do!

Q: It is said that you play an original style and there aren’t too many people who play that way.
EO: The thing is that I’ve always lived in the genre of traditional music, the ‘son’, the guaracha, the bolero, changüi, African. So, no other rhythm has ever been able to take me away from those roots. And now that Cuban music is going through the best stage of the century, it’s a fact, without a doubt, that currently, Cuban music is going through the best time this century. So it’s not untrue that there have been many bands coming out with Cuban music, playing ‘son’. Some will be good ‘son’ players because they know how, and others will be in it for the money. Because if ‘son’ is what’s paying the bills, well people are going to start ‘son’ bands. And I’ve been doing for many years when it paid off and when it didn’t, and well, things now have changed a lot, of course.

Q: Of course. Who was asking for you? Was it Juan de Marco or somebody else? They were saying please come with us…
EO: Yes that’s Juan de Marcos. He was calling me through the National Havana radio station in Santiago, Cuba for me to locate him to contact him because I had been selected to do a recording. To record with an American, very famous. So I said, well let’s go record a record with the famous American. I’m assuming that Americans pay well. Well, I got in touch with Juan de Marcos, we went up to Havana, recorded the CD, which we never thought would receive a Grammy, which was for Buenavista social club. We knew we were recording next to a great personality as is Ray Cooder who any musician would be delighted to work with this great musical talent. Also, we did it with the thought that we would make pretty good money, but we never imagined the Grammy.

Q: What a surprise!
EO: Yes, a surprise.

Q: Have things changed for you and your family?
EO: Naturally, life has changed much for the better. It has changed much for the better, because concert bookings have doubled, contracts have doubled, I have a record label, an exclusive contract for five years with Virgin. So, well imagine that. There’s a lot more money, and when there is a lot more money, well, there’s a lot more of everything. They say that with gold you can buy everything and money eases the suffering. So it looks like now we can buy anything and ease our suffering.

Q: And what do you think about this new CD of yours?
EO: Sublime Ilusión is a CD, a CD we hope that next year will have sold many hundreds. Because the truth is that the quality is extraordinary - - it’s very good. I don’t say that because I made the CD Sublime Ilusión. But the fact is that it’s very good. The repertoire is very well selected, and the recording is excellent. The engineers and the producer are wonderful, the editing they did…I am delighted with the work they did. Really. I think we’re offering the fans something very nice. And I am very happy, very satisfied with the CD.

Q: I liked it a lot when you mention "Ah, familia!" when you are on stage.
EO: That’s the truth. We are human beings. We’re all flesh and blood. I don’t think that anybody’s a stranger. I see people as they are - - human beings. I don’t know if they’re German, or from Cuba, or from the United States, or if they’re from Spain, or from nowhere. To me, we’re all human. All of us. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We come from nowhere and we go back to nowhere again. This is a dream. Life is a dream. And everything is gone, as they say. The reality is life and death. That’s reality.

Q: That’s true. I think that Cubans are the richest people in the world. They don’t have much materialy but with there is a spirit and with all of that music…something that’s missing in the United States.
EO: We want to continue offering our music, our affection, our love &emdash; our sincere love &emdash; to any stage in any part of the world we end up playing. That’s the truth. And whenever I sing a song, it carries all of my love, completely.

Q: And your heart and everything.
EO: Yes, yes of course.

Q: How long have you been here in the United States on this tour?
EO: We have about seven or eight days left here.

Q: Only eight days?
EO: We’ve been around here for about ten days, or more.

Q: Wherer to next?
EO: Then we’re going to Europe. We’ll be heading to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Paris, London, we’ll be performing a lot in Spain. Then we’re going to Cuba for vacation. We’ll be there December, January, and in February we start the tour all over again.

Q: Here in the United States or in Europe?
EO: All over the world.

Q: Is your family with you? Do they come along with you?
EO: There’s part of my family; for example, a couple of musicians are relatives. And my wife travels with me. That’s the best part! Because if you’re gone from Cuba and from home for so long, at any point in time, either she’s gone with somebody else, or somebody else has moved in! [Laughter]

Q: Are there plans for a new recording?
EO: Yes, we plan to record a new CD next year.

Q: What did you think, in general, about all of the places you visited and all of the people you have met?
EO: I think Cuban music has really been embraced, like I said before, it’s going through its best this century. Another thing I want to mention is that the record Buenavista Social Club and now Sublime ilusión have made a tremendous impact, like we say here, a grand slam. And the way the Europeans say it, we’re scoring goals. Because in one place they play soccer and over here it’s baseball. So, over here, we’re hitting grand slams, and for the Europeans we’re scoring goals one right after the other. So, what’s happening now is that people are opening their love and desire for Cuban music. And whenever they announce a well-known band, they already know Eliades Ochoa. In ’97 Eliades Ochoa was known for Sublime Ilusión. Eliades Ochoa is now well known along with Patria, so whenever there’s a listing, people go. People want to hear Cuban music, son, those beautiful things we posess. That’s the truth. I am extraordinarily happy. There’s another thing; that the North American market is the most important market worldwide.

Q: Are there any other influences for you?
EO: No influences. The influences I have had was when I opened my eyes to the world and I found my mom and dad and they played the tres. I don’t feel influenced by much else and I make any type of music and I’ll play with any musician, but with strong vibrato, that’s Cuban son.

Ochoa's singing is heart felt as are the tunes he chooses to present. His CD Sublime Ilusion has been nominated for a Grammy. ¡Felicidades!
I thanked him for his time and hoped we would indeed hear him again soon. You can hear Eliades Ochoa and Grupo Patria in February in our area. Check the EVENTS CALENDAR for dates.
Listen to a sound byte from Sublime Ilusion and then find the CD to add to your collection!