A real active music set, based and really concentrated on what the music's all about. That's what I'm all about - singing and a really good strong music set.

Even before I became a recording artist, I did other things in music. I was a teacher, I did studio work, and I was an arranger and a producer.

I grew up in a community that was bilingual. I've done it for a while, singing in both languages.

I was a teacher for a long time. I taught at a community college: voice, theory, humanities. And nowadays, music education is a dying thing. Funding is being cut more and more and more.

It happened in Miami, in Coral Gables, a great big ol' Cuban wedding. It was pretty intense.

So, when I got the contract for my album, even though it was an English record, my manager insisted on making sure we would record in Spanish as well, and it worked out really well for me.

I might be a Cuban American, but I'm also an Afro-Cuban American.