Yoel Diaz

Music is to Cuba what hockey is to Canada: Kids there learn to sing and play percussion first. Then they learn walking and talking.

The case of Yoel Diaz is typical: He's from the town of Holguin in the east of Cuba, the same region that produced his VV Records label mate Chiquitin, as well as the legendary voice of the Buena Vista Social Club, Compay Segundo. Now 26, he was barely 17 by the time he finished formal percussion and classical piano studies and began to pursue his own interests.

V V Records president Bob Pover: "The music industry there is very different from Canada's.

He played in orchestras with Chiquitin and had to learn all the great traditions in Cuban music. As such he always wrote either the music, the lyrics, or both, and a certain point he became really involved with the piano. " Ah yes, the piano. In Cuba, the pianos are of Russian design, with extremely heavy action requiring enormous stamina and technique to play. But once a Cuban pianist - Chucho Valdez for example - sits down at a Yamaha or Steinway, it's like putting a jet engine on a go cart. So when you see Yoel perform you can expect to see jaws drop in the audience. Now a permanent resident of Canada and living in Montreal, Diaz is assimilating the styles of his adopted homeland, blending these with his latino sensibilities.