PRIMO CUBANO

Where Primo Cubano goes, people dance. For the better of two decades, they have been bringing the infectious rhythms, rich harmonies, and lively improvisation of Cuban music to the Northeast—playing festivals, clubs, parties, weddings, and other private events.

The band was born out of a trip organized by the Brunswick-Trinidad Sister City Association, one of many organizations established to promote goodwill between the United States and Cuba. In 2004, an association trip brought Maine artists down to Cuba to share musical traditions between the two cultures. Singer, guitarist, and fiddler Paul D’Alessio, already well-established in Maine for playing folk music of the U.S., French Canada, and the Maritimes, went along and became inspired to learn the tres cubano—a guitar with three pairs of strings and the national instrument of Cuba. In 2007, he formed Primo Cubano back in his home state of Maine, bringing the palms to the pines.