Eliane Correa and an all-star lineup brings Cuban music into your pockets. Put on your dancing shoes and join us. And be careful. It’s salsa, not samba!
Currently touring with Hans Zimmer, Eliane spared some time with us for a quick interview. Read below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Empowering, Cuban, Sophisticated
Your whole album was written and recorded during the pandemic and recorded in 7 countries over 3 continents by 23 musicians. This feels like a big challenge! Tell us a few things about your creative process.
Arranging for a big format can be quite a technical and time-consuming task, so I really enjoyed spending the first lockdown mostly on my own in Havana writing this album from scratch, weaving these arrangements day by day. It was a monster task that I couldn’t have achieved without the huge slab of free time provided by the pandemic. I’m a very social being except when it comes to writing music which I like to do from a place of quiet. I always meditate or do tai chi before I sit down to write because it allows me to be truthful to myself in my writing. Anyway – we recorded the album throughout 2021 – on some occasions I was able to fly out in person to be present at the
recording and on other occasions I attended via zoom which was… an interesting experience
Favourite pianist?
Alive: Robert Glasper, Roberto Fonseca, Roberto Carcassés (yes, that’s three Roberts)
Alive in our memories: Thelonious Monk.
If aliens visit us and ask us what Cuban music is, which album would you give them to listen to?
Oh that’s an easy one – I have a playlist ready.
If the aliens don’t have Spotify, I’d give them a copy of Alain Pérez’s album El Cuento de la Buena Pipa and tell them to take it from there!
You mention that your innovative contribution to the genre is most importantly in the lyrics and that you wanted to broach the topic of romance and sensuality from a non-misogynistic standpoint. Why is sexism, and even outright misogyny, so pervasive in the music business?
The idea for this album comes from the fact that I love Cuban salsa (aka Timba) with all my heart but sometimes I get a bit pissed off at the lyrics because they’re misogynistic and/or objectifying women. I’ve been dreaming of having the time to sit down and write a large-format album that would have absolutely no misogyny in it.
When did you decide to become a musician yourself?
Apparently when I was about to turn 3 years old I asked for a piano because I decided I wanted to be an orchestra conductor. My parents brought home a little toy keyboard and I said “no, I asked for a real piano”. So they found an old battered upright piano, brought it in, and within days I was playing all the jingles I heard on TV with one finger, so I was sent to music school and that was that!
What isn’t a crime but should be?
People calling salsa samba (and the opposite).
Tell us something about you that not many people know!
I speak four languages and understand eight, so unless it’s a language that doesn’t use the Roman alphabet, be careful what you say around me 🙂
Thank you!
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Secret Eclectic 