Nella Rojas, or simply Nella, is a new voice hailing from the Venezuelan Island of Margarita

Born in Venezuela, Nella skyrocketed to international renown fueled by her powerhouse voice and undeniable presence. In a short time, she went from Berklee College of Music graduate to winner of the 2019 Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best New Artist. That same year, her full-length debut, Voy (I Go) written and produced by Javier Limón for Casa Limón Records, received acclaim from NPR and yielded the hit “Me Llaman Nella” (They Call Me Nella) which surpassed 1.4 million Spotify streams and 1.4 million views on YouTube. In addition, the title track was named the 14th best song of 2019, in any genre, by the New York Times.

Merging the folklore roots of Venezuela, modern production, and Andalusian inspirations, her sound resounds in every corner of the globe. Not only has she packed venues throughout the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, and the UK, but she has also accompanied Alejandro Sanz, Jennifer López, Carlos Vives, Luis Enrique, Susana Baca, Los Amigos Invisibles, Monsieur Periné, Caramelos de Cianuro and Guaco as a soloist.

Notably, Academy® Award winner Asghar Farhadi recruited her to join the A-list cast of his film Everybody Knows alongside Academy® Award winner Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín, and Academy® Award winner Penélope Cruz. Illuminating her talents, she performed songs written by Javier Limón exclusively for the screenplay. It opened at the Cannes Film Festival to rapturous applause.

• CD Review: Nella – Voy

Rail Band of the Train Station Hotel, Ambassadeurs of the Motel of Bamako, Ambassadeurs Internationaux, and lately, Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux: so many bands that enabled Salif Keita to ascend the steep steps to world fame. Not only do their names suggest a quest, a thirst for mobility and travel, they translate also his burning desire, as a person with albinism, the white man with the deep soul of Black Africa, to escape from a society that was denying him his full rights as a human being. Paradoxically, the names of these bands also express Salif Keita’s uncompromising pride of belonging to Mali and Manden, the legendary land of his birth, whose captivating Humanism he has been championing around the world for several decades now.

But how can one speak about Salif Keita the poet without borrowing his own words. From a Parisian recording studio in 1986, he loudly proclaimed: “Sina, O Sina, i den to tò le jamanakè do”/ Sina, O, Sina, your son is lost far away from home.” Five years later, not only this son of Sina the Master hunter and sweet Nassira Keita had not lost his way, he only had reassuring words for his Spiritual Teacher: “O, Karamoko, taama diyara”/ “O, Master, my wanderings have borne fruits.”

Having left at a very young age his native Djoliba in the late sixties, first village chosen to be rebuilt by the American US AID right after Mali’s independence, the traveling bird of Mandé has gone around the world, safely perching, as he said, on one tall tree, that of Knowledge, Lony, where the rocks thrown by mean people could not reach him.

And 40 years after his delightful and ageless Mandjou (1978), let’s recall some of the many jewels this master-­wordsmith, the Malian King Midas, has chiseled for us: Soro (1987), Amen (1991), Folon (1995), Papa (1998), Moffou (2002), La Différence (2009) et Talé (2012). And so many memorable collaborations: Joe Zawinul, Steve Hillage, Jean Philippe Rykiel, Carlos Santana, Cesaria Evora, Wayne Shorter, Ibrahim Maalouf, Vernon Reid/Living Colour, Philippe Cohen Solal, and of course, Esperanza Spalding. Let’s not forget his many hits remixed and popularized even further by world-­renowned DJs such as Funk Mob, Frédéric Galliano, Martin Solveig and Luciano.

And along the way, Salif has bagged countless awards, national distinctions and prizes over his decades of touring the world, establishing his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, the Patriarch and the undisputed Ambassador of African music.

Here we are. Forty years later and another milestone, Un Autre Blanc, the new album that Salif Keita has announced as his last. Ready to celebrate 50 years of a stellar career in music and soon to be seventy, and perhaps as a way of winding down, Salif Keita wishes to spread out his mat under the mango trees of the banks of the Niger river, to indulge in his favorite game of draughts. A well-­deserved rest, to be sure, for the Prodigy(N’an kama) of Djoliba but should we really believe that this beautiful album will be the last word of a most prolific poet, whose luminous voice has carried hope, even as far as the cells of Robben Island.

This album of 10 brand-­new tracks continues Salif’s advocacy for the human rights of people with Albinism, a fight his Foundation for Albinism pledges to intensify, especially since the UN has declared June 13 the International Albinism Awareness Day. Salif is protesting the continued abduction and killing of albinos in a number of African countries for purposes of witchcraft and financial profit. He decries the fact that local witch doctors often purposefully spread and perpetuate misconceptions and superstitions for personal gain, and in some cases, family members of these innocent victims being complicit in these crimes.

• Salif Keita Releases New Album: “Un Autre Blanc”

His sugarcane-sweet melodies, pop-soul hooks and powerful guitar riffs, relinquish a conventional stereotype that exemplifies much of the Latin music landscape.

Born Alexis Puentes in Artemisa, Cuba, he was immersed in music at a very young age, joining his father’s (respected guitarist and teacher Valentin Puentes) group of 24 guitarists.

Alex then went on to study electric and upright bass and touring and recording nationally and internationally. In 1999, Alex moved to Victoria, B.C where he recorded an album titled Morumba Cubana alongside his twin brother Adonis, as The Puentes Brothers.

Alex then went on to record his solo debut album Humo De Tabaco, which earned him a Juno award for World Music Album of the Year in 2006. In 2007, Alex released Agua Del Pozo which also earned him another Juno award for World Music Album of the Year in 2008.

From there, Alex released his third album, a self-titled project, Alex Cuba in 2009.
The album features his first ever English track titled “If You Give Me Love”. The album gained recognition on an international level. In 2010, Alex took home the award for Best New Artist at the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards, where it was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Album. It also followed a nomination for Best Latin Pop Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011

Alex took home a BMI Latin Award for his songwriting on Nelly Furtado’s #1 Spanish hit “Manos Al Aire”. In 2012, Alex released his fourth album, Ruido En El Sistema, for which Alex received his second Socan Hagood Hardy Award for outstanding achievement in Jazz and World Music.

He also won his second Latin Grammy Award – this time as a songwriter. Alongside co-writer Yoel Henriquez received the award for Best Tropical Song for the Milly Quezada’s single, “Toma Mi Vida”. In 2013, he again brought home a Latin Grammy for the video “Eres Tú“ from Ruido En El Sistema, a video produced entirely in his hometown of Smithers.

Alex Cuba’s 5th studio album, Healer, was recorded in New York, USA and Victoria, Canada, using a live rhythm section, trading in horns for guitars and vocal harmonies. With five duets with singer songwriters, four being Canadian, Ron Sexsmith, David Myles, Alejandra Ribera and Kuba Oms as well as New Yorker Anya Marina, it is an upbeat, acoustic soul album full of optimism and reality as Alex always has a silver lining on melancholy of any form.

The album won a Latin Grammy for best Singer-songwriter and was nominated for a Grammy as best Latin Pop in 2016. In 2017, Alex completed his 6th album Lo Único Constante, beginning in Spain and passing through Montreal to record a single with Jean Massicotte.

Then meeting up with the rhythm section from Healer in Baker Studios to record and mix 12 songs that delve deeper into Alex’s songwriting roots, focusing on nylon string guitar and upright bass. Looking at the “filin” movement in Cuba of the forties that fused jazz and trova together with emotional but not sad lyrical content. Music that influenced his writing style to this day. The album was nominated for both a Latin Grammy for Best Singer-Songwriter and Grammy for Best Latin Pop.

In 2019 Alex Cuba embarked on his first ever self produced collection of songs featuring 5 collaborations, this time with Latin American singer songwriters, recorded in Gibsons BC with John “Beetle” Bailey and mixed at John’s Drive Shed studio in Ontario. The album received a Latin Grammy Nomination and performance at the televised Award Show in Miami November 2020.

2021 has Alex recording at home and adding recording engineer to his credits as musician, singer-songwriter, producer. From the healing voice of Grammy Award winning Lila Downs on “Mundo Nuevo”, to his colourful collaboration with world-renowned flamenco artist, Antonio Carmona, and commissioning a 13-piece horn band from his native country of Cuba, Alex’s vibrant eighth studio album, Mendó, is filled with international collaborations.

The artwork for the album marks another international project, created by an artist in Trinidad and Tobago, Brianna McCarthy, who caught Cuba’s eye when he noticed her work on the cover of a book and was drawn to “her unique interpretation of the African diaspora”.

His musical evolution for years was all about searching for the simplicity and soul in Cuban music – taking apart the complex arrangements, mixing it with North American influences, adopting the melodic simplicity of pop music, looking to Cuban folk traditions for inspiration – he’s always exploring, always creating something fresh and new, and always, it seems, getting it just right.