WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING….
“The new work from Adonis Puentes will surprise many. The variety of the songs, excellent and original arrangements, and the superlative quality of the musicians, produce a record that I consider one of the best I have listened to in sometime. I hope “Sabor A Café” finds the audience it deserves. An excellent album I recommend with all my heart. Congratulations Adonis!” – Ruben Blades
Adonis Puentes was destined to be a music star. His most recent release, Sabor a Café, nominated as World Music Album Of The Year at 2014 Canadian Juno Awards. This album was the first collection of all self-composed original songs.
Adonis and his fraternal twin Alexis, now better known as Alex Cuba, were born in 1974 in Artemisa, Cuba. Their father, Valentin Puentes is a well-respected musician and teacher, and at six the twins were playing in a children’s guitar ensemble. At 14, Adonis was singing and writing original songs, music that has ripened and matured into the poetic, sensuous song-cycle.
Adonis Puentes has been nominated for a Juno Award and garnered a Grammy Award nomination for his lead vocalist work with the nine-piece, L.A.-based Mongorama, directed by well-known radio host Jose Rizo. He has toured with Irakere veteran ‘Maraca’ Orlando Valle and sang at L.A.’s Greek Theater, Hollywood & Highland, and Lincoln Center, where he shared the stage with Latin music luminaries Larry Harlow and Ruben Blades before 24,000 New York fans. He has performed at festivals around the world from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas to Java Jazz in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“I have traveled the world singing. My mission in life is to share my music, giving people joy,” Adonis explains. “My new recording captures my poetic journey, my revelations and my maturing as an artist.”
The Puentes Brothers’ award-winning 2001 CD, Morumba Cubana and Adonis’ 2005 solo debut, Vida were critically acclaimed, the latter earning Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year in the Island Music Awards. His second solo album, Sabor a Café, (2014 Juno nominated) builds upon these triumphs with a wide-ranging collection of astonishingly wise and witty songs.
From playful, sexy lyrics and horn-driven rhythms to elegant soulfulness Adonis’ original compositions offer a rich and varied narrative in praise of the power of love. Adonis Puentes has produced a warm, revelatory self-portrait. Even if you can’t speak a word of Spanish, you can hear his joy, his love of life, his passion!
There is a hypnotic, magical flow to his recording’s, a dream-like musical journey with echoes of myriad traditional Cuban forms conjured up by the studio musicians’ brilliance and Adonis Puentes’ visionary songwriting and evocative vocals.
Puentes has lived in Canada since 1998, but his music is steeped in Cuban music history and culture.
The new album is set to be a sensuous, profound recording with dramatic arrangements and a crystal clear studio sound. Adonis Puentes is a great singer and an elegant composer and lyricist grounded and nourished by his Cuban roots and worldly experience.
“It’s a sensuous, profound recording with dramatic arrangements and a crystal clear studio sound. Adonis Puentes is a great singer and an elegant composer and lyricist grounded and nourished by his Cuban roots and worldly experience. Sabor a Café is a modern, Cuban music masterpiece.”
Kingston Grand Theatre, Rosen Auditorium
218 Princess St.
Kingston ON K7L1B2
Canada