\n<\/p>\n
As she grew into adolescence, Arocena became the lead singer of the big band Los Primos, then created Alami, a jazz band made up of all women. (It later was reformed as Maqueque with the Toronto-based saxophonist and bandleader Jane Bunnett.) In 2014, the French D.J. and producer Gilles Peterson, who founded the London indie label Brownswood Recordings, invited Arocena to participate in \u201cHavana Cultura Mix \u2014 The Soundclash,<\/a>\u201d a collaboration between international electronic artists and Cuban musicians.<\/p>\n In some ways, Arocena\u2019s tendency to mix Afro-Cuban folkloric music, post-salsa \u201ctimba\u201d music and outside influences like R&B reflected the mid-2010s Havana scene that Peterson encountered, one that produced the funk master Cimafunk<\/a>. He sang in Interactivo<\/a>, a crucial band from this period that was \u201cthe soundtrack of an entire generation,\u201d Arocena said. \u201cEvery Wednesday, all the cool kids would go to see them at the Bertolt Brecht\u201d cultural center, she added, peppering her speech with an occasional English word or phrase.<\/p>\n By 2016, Arocena had played at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and at Sub Rosa, a short-lived club in the meatpacking district of New York. As her profile rose, she performed with Cuban jazz titans like Paquito D\u2019Rivera and Arturo O\u2019Farrill\u2019s Afro-Latin Orchestra.<\/p>\n In 2019, she decided to leave Cuba for good and moved to Toronto, where her husband could secure a visa. \u201cIt was a very hard time for me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe pandemic came, and that mixed with emigration problems, and it was so cold! I had left everything, it was traumatic. I didn\u2019t feel like listening to jazz, any music that was very complex, or that made me think a lot. I wanted to hear things that relaxed me.\u201d<\/p>\n Arocena retreated to music she heard when she was growing up, like the Brazilian pop vocalist Djavan and the neo-soul diva Sade. \u201cMy dad would climb to the roof of our building with an antenna to catch a U.S. radio signal,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe was way in love with Sade, and I know that in the spermatozoid that is Daym\u00e9, there\u2019s some Sade in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n