Afropop Worldwide

A showcase is, well, a showcase. It’s where record labels and companies push and highlight their talent for record producers, industry execs, and press. Perhaps they need a financial boost (as one exec told me), are up-and-coming or merely they’re flaunting a new tour or album. I got a taste of this at one of the Latin American Alternative Music Conference’s showcases – sponsored by peermusic, the global independent music publisher – at Sounds of Brazil (or S.O.B.'s) in New York City.

“In the world that I'm coming from, it's all about music, but in this world it's not just about music. Music is a piece, it's an element of many other things,” Daymé Arocena, the 32-year-old Cuban singer, told me later at La Colombe Coffee Roasters in the city’s Hudson Square neighborhood.

For Arocena, despite producing five albums, including her latest Alkemi earlier this year, and coming out with a Tiny Desk in 2016, the experience of encountering the industry — from talking to execs, taking tours and playing at the offices of Google and YouTube, it all was a new, though fruitful experience.

“I have enjoyed this so much,” Arocena said. “I didn't imagine I was going to enjoy these types of things. I am not used to (the music) industry in this way. I am a Cuban person, where we don't have industry development…”

At S.O.B.’s, I heard artist after artist from around Latin America do their job — play a few impressive tracks and then usher in the next act. It reminded me of a wine tasting where each glass is better than the next, but with no spit cup in sight, one hits that moment of satiation — everything is good, but you’re capped out and can’t take in much more information.

I felt that way at S.O.B.'s – I was grateful to see so many incredible, international acts, but I also felt overwhelmed after the first set of performers. However, my feelings changed when the very final act, Daymé Arocena, took the stage. Her large, resonant sound sent ripples through the intimate audience and electrified the venue. Many stepped closer to the stage and danced softly when she sang “El Ruso.”

The crowd wanted more than the three or four songs, typical of a showcase. They wanted a full set, and when she wrapped up her last song — the crowd chanted, for the first time that night, “otra, otra…” and to the dismay of one of the stage managers, who understood that the night was supposed to be ending, she gave us one more, brilliant tune. It became less a showcase and more a “spiritual.”

“Spiritual” is a word that Daymé Arocena, who eschews “genre,” uses to describe her sound and what music is at its core.

“I'm against musical genres,” Arocena said. “First, because it's a human construction. And second because, I believe music is not a human construction. Music is way more than that. It's above all of that.”

The night continued, and despite being tired and already seeing a lot of music, I headed out with a friend to DROM for another showcase — this one sponsored by BMI. But I couldn’t quite shake Arocena’s sound from my head, it temporarily rattled me to my core. And I just wanted to hear her play again and learn more about her story.

Later in July, Arocena will play at the Grand Performances Summer Series in Los Angeles. And in the fall, she’ll be back in New York, with a performance at Carnegie Hall.