THIS year is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, a good time for jazz violinist Omar Puente to reflect on his own journey on his debut solo album, From There To Here.

“I arrived in Britain in 1997. I came here to a completely new culture, a completely new weather.

“It was January, really, really cold, snow everywhere, grey skies, and my reflection was, ‘What am I doing?’,” says Omar, as he recalls leaving behind Cuba for these shores, ahead of tomorrow’s concert as part of the Jazz Weekendthe National Centre for Early Music (NCEM).

He is still here, settled in Bradford, where he lives with Debbie Purdy, the political campaigner who continues her fight for the assisted suicide rights of her fellow multiple sclerosis sufferers.

“I met my wife in Singapore in 1998 and we came to West Yorkshire because she wanted to come home as she felt safe there. Already Debbie had MS… and, of course, the beginning was tough, and it’s still tough,” he says.

“When we met I didn’t have any credit card, no money. At the time Debbie was still driving, and she had a car that was even colder on the inside than the outside.

“Musically, it was a matter of me believing in myself. We worked really hard and I started to meet musicians, but I knew I had to improve my English and learn to drive.”

The violin is more associated with classical music – Omar’s own musical background – and that made him all the more determined to make his mark.

“I play classical music, but to get the other part in there, the jazz, is the big challenge as there’s no big knowledge of violin in jazz music,” he says. “There are a million sax players, a million pianists, a million percussionists, in jazz, so I thought, ‘The way I play jazz, let’s bring it to everybody’.”

Omar has not changed his belief that “you need a lot of help to make it work for you in the music business”, but such is his talent that in recent hears he has toured with Denys Baptiste’s Let Freedom Ring project, served as a member of Courtney Pine’s touring band and been involved with the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra.

Last autumn, he made a guest appearance at the NCEM with the band Samay, and now he returns there with the focus falling on From Here To There, an album suffused with blues, funk and African rhythms and given extra gravitas by being produced by Courtney Pine at his London studio.

Yet why has Omar taken so long to release an album under his own name?

“The reason? A million reasons,” he says. “But I appreciate Courtney believing in my music to risk working on my album and bringing it out on his label.”

The album pays tribute to his late mother, father and brother.

“The nucleus of my family has gone, so I’ve dedicated it to them. I was born in 1962 and had the opportunity with the Cuban revolution for free education, and now I have to thank all those people who made it happen for me, like my teachers,” he says.

“I now teach at Leeds College of Music and Trinity College of Music and the Bridge Academy at Hackney, so I’ve been teaching what my teachers taught me.”

Having gone from there to here, Omar is helping other musicians to make their own journey, even if they do not have to travel as far as from Cuba to Yorkshire.

• Omar Puente plays the National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm.