What does it take to go from sneaking into rumba rehearsals as a kid in Santa Clara, Cuba, to becoming arguably the greatest living drummer on earth?

Dafnis Prieto is a Grammy Award winner, MacArthur "Genius" Fellow and one of the most gifted drummers alive. On faculty at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, he has three self-published books studied worldwide. Host Dana Leong has known him personally since Dana was 15 and Dafnis was 21. This is the conversation we've been waiting 30 years to have.

Follow Dafnis: https://www.dafnisonmusic.com | https://linktr.ee/DafnisPrieto

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Chapters:
0:00 Cold open - "I'm going to become the healthiest person that ever died"
2:15 Meet Dafnis Prieto - Grammy winner, MacArthur Genius, arguably the greatest drummer alive
5:00 Why he always reminds himself of the reason he chose this life
10:20 Inner world vs outer world - separating frustration from purpose
14:45 What every world-class performer actually has in common
17:00 Born in Santa Clara - only child, divorced parents, a mom who said yes
22:30 From guitar to bongos - the House of Culture and a Cuban band
26:00 Eight years of classical training - Santa Clara to Havana's National School
30:15 The Big Bang - Carlos Masa, Hermeto Pascoal, and Ravi Shankar at 14
35:40 First tour at 18 - special school permit, Cuba straight to Paris
40:10 Getting paid in Cuba vs Paris - "a big whale and a sardine"
44:30 The assembly line story - trains, 30 seconds, and Cuban teamwork
51:20 The Village Voice era - how European bookers discovered New York artists
55:00 "If Jesus Christ was in Times Square nobody cares" - social media and the fake artist problem
1:00:10 Marketing vs selling your soul - the tension every serious artist lives with
1:05:30 Why live music still matters - Dana's mom at 80, Taiwan's National Concert Hall
1:10:00 Integrity as a total way of being
1:15:20 The hidden instruments - classical guitar, flamenco, marimba
1:19:45 Why Cuba produces champions - "you do twice the work"
1:23:30 The 24/7 conservatory - living inside the National School of Music
1:28:00 Getting out of Cuba - exit permits, bureaucracy, and the Stanford invitation
1:34:20 Cuba sent one guy - and they sent the right one
1:39:10 Cuban culture as the deep root
1:43:00 The global political climate and what it means for artists
1:47:00 "There is value in the objective but there is potential in the subjective"
1:51:00 Pancho Quinto - tradition as a point of departure
1:57:00 Learning English in New York - a notebook and self-teaching
2:01:00 Mentorship at Frost School - Marcelo Perez, Bob Moses, the drum quartet
2:07:00 Why Dafnis doesn't sign up for teaching - but gives it everything
2:12:00 The frying pan on the drum kit - carnival, sneaking out, Chinatown
2:18:00 Long-term musical relationships - what makes a real band
2:23:00 The social media dilemma - practice vs posting
2:29:00 Building character before the digital age - Coltrane, Chaplin
2:34:00 "Don't wait for anyone to make yourself poor"
2:38:00 Final words - if you have a dream, go for it

UpgradeMe is hosted by Dana Leong, a 2x Grammy Winning Musician, US Music Ambassador and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Sponsored by https://www.TEKTONIKmusic.org (Harmony Heals).