Raúl Paz

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Raúl Paz (born 1969) from Pinar del Río, Cuba, is often called the "French Cuban" for helping reshape Cuban music in the 21st century. He trained for ten years at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, learning violin, singing, music theory and more, and he began by singing guajira, a Cuban country style. After his classical training, he explored rock and reggae from American radio. He left Cuba in 1993, spending time in South America before moving to Paris to study at the Schola Cantorum. He married Rachelle and they have two sons, Rocco and Raphael.

In Paris, during the mid-1990s, Paz played in clubs and became a pioneer of the new Cuban wave. He was spotted by Ralph Mercado and recorded his first album, Cuba Libre, later renamed Imaginate for the American market; it sold about 100,000 copies and earned him praise as a top new male artist. In 1998 he released a Besame Mucho duet with Viktor Lazlo for her album Amour(s) and appeared on a German film soundtrack.

Back in Paris, Paz signed with Naïve. Mulata (2003) mixed Cuban music with hip-hop, dub and rock and sold about 60,000 copies. He then recorded Revolución in Havana at the Egrem studios. He had a son, Rocco (born 2001), and later Raphael; in 2005 he played the lead in Mambo Mystico at the Théâtre national de Chaillot. He released En Vivo (2007) and Havanization (2010) on Naïve.