CRI听力:Cuba Music Looks to Spread into the US

From the bolero to the mambo and from the rumba to the salsa, Cuba has a rich heritage of musical talent looking to take advantage of the renewed ties between Cuba and the United States.

Since the 1962 U.S. Trade Embargo, musicians in Cuba have struggled to take their music abroad.

Until the Bill Clinton presidency, it was not even possible to license Cuban music for American distribution.

But with change on the horizon, Cuban musicians like Israel Rojas, a member of the Guantanamo pop group, Buena Fe, are hopeful for the opportunity to share their talent.

"For the musician's guild you can imagine that this is an enormous opportunity. This country has extraordinary musicians, fantastic, they have a cultural force. Also, they are not even known yet, legitimately, as a result of this policy of survival, the policy of denial of our musicians to bigger markets where music is distributed as a product. It's an opportunity."

This move has opened up a new chapter of engagement between the former Cold War foes with one of its next tasks being the dismantling of the former economic embargo.

Another Cuban Grammy nominee, singer Cucu Diamantes, says that a more flexible American response to Cuban musicians will mean more exposure for local artists.

"If all U.S. policies towards Cuba start to be more flexible I think that Cuban artists will have more exposure, for example in the Latin Grammies. We have a large musical platform in Cuba but we have little presence in the Grammies."

In 2004, five Cuban Grammy nominees, including the late Ibrahim Ferrer, were refused visas by the Bush administration.

Ferrer's group the Buena Vista Social Club went on to win the award in their category.

Now, amidst a warming of ties and Cuban Americans making up the third largest Hispanic group in the United States, orchestral director from the post-revolutionary Cuban musical group, Samuel Formell, says the U.S. is Cuba's most important music market.

Changes in Cuba have also made it easier for Cuban Americans to travel to Havana.

In 2012, Cuba reversed its blacklist on anti-Castro artists such as Gloria Estefan and Grammy-winning saxophonist Paquito d'Rivera.

For CRI, I'm Poornima Weerasekara.