Adalberto Alvarez
An exclusive interview with SalsaPower, 
by

March 31st, 2001, the day that Adalberto Alvarez y su Son were scheduled to perform at Starfish in Miami Beach, was a sunny and very windy day.  The evening was partially cloudy as I left my house, headed toward the club.  On the way there, a few raindrops fell, but you could still see some stars between the clouds.

When I arrived I found Adalberto in the garden outside the club, surrounded by his admirers, members of his band, and friends.  I introduced myself and we agreed to do the interview during the break between sets, right there in the garden.

I'm not going to go into much detail about the concert, because our Local Correspondent from the Bahamas, Kaysee, was on the scene to do that, and you can read her report shortly in the Concerts section, but suffice it to say that the group sounded really great and there wasn't a soul who didn't dance.

When the set ended and he came down off the stage, I followed him out into the garden where we found that everything was wet.  They had removed most of the furniture from the garden when it started to rain, as well as having turned off most of the lights.  We found a table with an umbrella so we could do the interview, but it was so dark I couldn't read my notes where I had written all the questions I wanted to ask him, so, oh, well! I decided to simply chat with him.

Jacira:  Adalberto, your group has a lot of new faces.  Why did you replace so many of your musicians?

Adalberto:  The new group has a few of the original members, and my daughter on keyboards, but the change was made so as to perfect the musical quality and cover some things that were a bit "loose".  These guys are all from the Escuela National de Arte (the National Fine Arts School).  There are three new vocalists, but one didn't join us on the tour because he just recently joined the group and is still rehearsing. I decided to have three vocalists so as not to over-use one singer.  The variety of tonal qualities allows me to write for each one of them.

Jacira:  In March of 1999, you performed at the Cameo Theater here in Miami Beach.  Comparing this visit with that one, have we received you better this time?

Adalberto: Much better!  The show today is like being at home!  We have received so much praise that it makes us feel great.  I feel that there have been changes in Miami.  People are beginning to separate things.  Those that come, come to dance!

Jacira: Exactly!  A couple of years ago, I published an article in a Salsa magazine in Japan, "Salsa 120%", where I stated that slowly the younger generation in Miami, the children of the exiles, were beginning to break out of the limitations placed upon them by their parents and that they were looking for ways to reconnect with their Cuban roots.

But I'm getting off track... I read an interview that you did with mundolatino.org where you said that true success was not being able to fill a place in Barcelona with 2,000 or 3,000 people, but rather that after you left, they continued to play your music on the radio and to sell your CDs.  Have you managed to find that success somewhere?

Adalberto: Yes, in Japan.  The last time we went they had the entire collection of my albums and the public knew most of the words to my songs.  We came out on TV and our songs were played on the radio.

Jacira:  Your last album, "Jugando con Candela," which came out in 1999 was, in my opinion, phenomenal.  When are you going to launch another album?

Adalberto:  That album was only distributed here in the US.  The record company has had some internal problems and we are waiting to terminate our contract with them so as to do another album, probably by September or October this year.

And just then the rain started coming down really hard and we had to run back into the club. Next time he comes to town, we'll have to finish this little chat!

April 1, 2001

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