Cuba Libre!

Jesus Alemany could be Cuba's greatest export since Che Guevara became Bolivian dust. Gruffvoiced, barrel-chested and possessing the strong, dark features of a true mambo king, Alemany is the brightest star on the rising Latin music scene. Surprisingly, he's based in London - the 37-year-old trumpet player and band leader has chosen to settle in Camden Town, home to many a Britpop star. While Alemany may have played on any number of recordings by Britain's paler pop princes, it is as the leader of Cubanismo! that he has attracted international attention.

While Cubanismo! are yet to become a household name here, their following throughout the Americas, north and south, is huge and Europe is also falling under their spell - concerts in which Alemany's 13-piece band mixes salsa and jazz into a percussive explosion, sell out in record time. While the recent explosion in Cuban music has attracted many an old-timer out of retirement to play solely for European audiences with romantic ideas of revolutionary Cuba, Cubanismo! attracts a large Latin audience who dance in the aisles and toast the band with rum.

Onstage, Alemany remains a very cool character, wearing immaculately cut suits and blowing trumpet solos that sizzle; off-stage he's typically Cuban, talking English rapidly in a gruff accent and possessing a great roar of a laugh. If being one of the rising stars of Latin America's flourishing music industry has changed him, he doesn't let on. What he does admit is that he has travelled a long way, geographically and musically, from playing to tourists at Havana's legendary Tropicana Club. "Things are great, man, great. We've just finished another tour of the US and I never know what to expect. You hear about them boycotting Cuban artists, pulling crazy stunts at venues, but we experienced nothing but good will. OK, we didn't play Miami because all the politics down there make it difficult, but we got around; New Orleans, Houston, everywhere was sold out. The only problem was that because of the US embargo, we have to treat the tour as a promotional thing, as no money is allowed to be traded between Cuba and America."

Touring the richest country in the world and not being paid for it must seem a bitter paradox, but Alemany refuses to complain. The US embargo has meant that for decades Cuban musicians either languished at home or went into exile. The very opportunity to work freely is a new one for Cuban musicians - Castro's regime having shown considerable flexibility towards musicians since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This, together with the fact that he met the noted British musicologist Lucy Duran while she was in Cuba in 1994 and is now married to her, account for his London sojourn. "When I arrived in London, man, it was a learning experience. The different culture, the different environment, it changed my life completely. I've done a lot of studio work, especially with The Cure and Tindersticks. This kind of music, it's not my roots, but I'm very happy playing it because it means I'm learning all the time."

Studio jobs are lucrative, but it is with Cubanismo! that Alemany steps out and shows what makes him one of the world's great trumpet players. The band are so polyrythmic, so fluid in their trading of solos, that any leader who was less than a master could cause the band to founder. "Nowhere in the world can you find this kind of music but Cuba," says Alemany. "We're playing old tunes, old rhythms, songs that you have to be Cuban to know. But we're fresh, man, we've got a totally modern sound. When we play solos we keep the flavour but play whatever we like. We don't stay locked in a style. It's a jam session."

The international popularity of salsa - second only to line dancing as far as current dance fashions go - means that there is potentially a huge audience for Cubanismo! Unfortunately, most dancers only get to hear mechanical Miami salsa, tunes created on computers without a musician going near it. Alemany's quest is to make music that is something more than Latin disco. "In Cuba people eat and breathe music, they know what's real. In Europe salsa's brand new and it's great that so many people are taking dance classes - but it's a shame that sometimes people are repeating old ideas. Let's open things up." Cubanismo!'s concept originated in London when producer Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, REM et al) asked Alemany if he was interested in forming a Cuban band that could play Latin jazz over dance rhythms. The two flew to Cuba in 1995, recruited the hottest players on the Havana scene and recorded Cubanismo!'s eponymous first album live in the studio. Its success saw the band record a second album, Malembe, in 1997, and last year's Reencarnation. Boyd recognised the wealth of talent in Cuba's isolated yet flourishing music scene and has produced albums for a variety of artists, including veterans Compay Segundo and Ruben Gonzalez.

Intrigued by what was going on, Ry Cooder went to Cuba and recorded Buena Vista Social Club with veteran Havana musicians. This album, with its relaxed mix of rhumba, mambo and chacha-cha has proved an international sensation, selling over a million copies, winning a Grammy for Best Latin Album and establishing pianist Ruben Gonzalez and vocalist Ibrahim Ferrar as major draws wherever they play. The American blockade has, paradoxically, protected Cuban music from outside influences and established Havana as home to the hottest music scene going.

Last year I was introduced to Ruben Gonzalez after his triumphant Barbican concert. The 80 year-old pianist is a tiny man who suffers from chronic arthritis, yet his playing remains beautifully fluid. Ry Cooder calls Gonzalez "the greatest piano player in the world today, a cross between Thelonius Monk and Felix The Cat" - and talking to Gonzalez I discovered a humble man who feels blessed that he can enjoy luxuries (a new piano, good suits, a CD player) in his twilight years that he never dreamed of before Buena Vista Social Club's success changed his life. Gonzalez's musical style remains rooted in pre-revolution Cuban music - he prefers to keep a waltz time rather than salsa's more frantic rhythm. His international fame - in Cuba he is not particularly well known, as the Buena Vista album has only been released this year and salsa, rap and rock remain the prevailing favourites amongst young Cubans - has allowed him a lifestyle way beyond that of most Cubans, even though the government keeps ("taxes") the bulk of his income. When asked about Castro he simply nods approvingly, aware that to offer any public criticisms of Cuba's dictator would result in him losing the privileges he now enjoys. "Can I get you a drink?" I asked him. "No, I only drink milk," was his succinct reply. Jesus Alemany, on the other hand, enjoys rum and has discovered a taste for fine wines - yet he, too, remains tight-lipped about the situation in Cuba.

"There's so many good players in Cuba," says Alemany, `but economically it is very difficult; lots of problems. I spent10 years playing in the Tropicana, playing and teaching other musicians how to play. But I had to come to London to make a concept like Cubanismo! work."

If Cubanismo!'s brassy salsa workouts sound familiar, don't be surprised. What we know as salsa originates from Cuban emigrant music, son - Havana is to Latin music what New Orleans is to jazz. Not only does salsa owe a huge debt to Cuban rhythms, but Cuban drummers in Harlem in the late 1930s and 1940s paved the way for jazz's evolution from swing into modern jazz, not to mention rock'n'roll's borrowing from Cuban mambo, cha-cha and rhumba rhythms. Alemany is a living example of how all these musical cultures can hang together: a Camden-based Cuban who blows one of the hottest trumpets in the world through jazz, salsa and rock bands. The embargo may continue, but Cuban music is breaking free.

Cubanismo, Malembe and Reencarnation are available on Hannibal