Songwriting with Pimienta. Notes for an applause

When I learned a few months ago that the Oralitura Academy was preparing a course on songwriting, in which the work of Bob Dylan and Joaquín Sabina would be analyzed under the lens of Alexis Díaz Pimienta, I felt a genuine emotion. Somehow my admiration for the poet, writer and songwriter that Alexis is, among other things, combined with the respect (bordering on veneration) that I feel for these two giants of music and lyrics of all times.

The promotion also announced the presence, as guest professors, of singer-songwriter and poet Marwán, along with the legendary and multi-adjectivable Andrés Calamaro and, as if that were not enough, in non-teaching roles (as much a student as anyone else) the masters of contemporary song Julieta Venegas and Natalia Lafourcade, among other prestigious collaborations.

I confess that at that time (and now I will not deny it), along with the agitation referred to above, some suspicions surfaced in me. Although Díaz Pimienta is a renowned scholar, committed for many years to the word, phonetically and semantically, it is also well known that he is one of the human beings who treasures the most words in his vocabulary cardboard and, for many (Sabina one of them), the best and quickest at the time of using them. It was not absurd to imagine that on this occasion he might have lost his hand, or his tongue, victim of that unbridled speed.

In my defense, a couple of months ago I did not know in detail that Oralitura Academy is a virtual school, founded more than a decade ago, which specializes in the oral arts and of course in improvisation; nor did I know that this first course of the year 2024 is the continuation of more than twenty teaching experiences, which with deep rigor and preparation have addressed topics as varied as vocal technique, scenic oral narration, theatrical improvisation, the sonnet, the tenth, among so many manifestations.

For this purpose, Oralitura has counted on Alexis Díaz Pimienta, its usual master of ceremonies, and other prestigious figures such as Jorge Drexler, Juanes, Javier Ruibal, Gema Corredera, Héctor Urién, Pala or Pedro Poitevín, just to mention a few names of this luxurious and multidisciplinary staff, as well as students who already exceed 4000 and who are distributed among the five continents.

I could attest to this regional diversity from the very first moments of the course, after crossing the threshold of the Zoom room and beginning to hear the greetings of musicians, readers and music lovers, poetry geeksas Alexis affectionately refers to his oralitoresThe first two were from Colombia, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, France, or Germany, and they said good morning, afternoon, or evening, according to the corresponding time zone.

We were all welcomed by Díaz Pimienta, who began the trip without too many preambles, reading some of his own tenths dedicated to the only chance encounter Joaquín Sabina ever had with Bob Dylan: the poetic fantasy managed to overcome the shyness of the man from Úbeda, who on that unrepeatable occasion did not dare to approach his idol, whom he recognized as he entered some stores in a central Madrid street.

Art correcting reality, it seemed that Pimienta whispered to us as the words of The day Bob Dylan and Joaquín Sabina got drunk in Madrid. And already from that moment he began to mark the conceptual limits between oral and written poetry, assuring that "the oral arts are not younger sisters of the written ones, but rather traveling companions".

In this first meeting, the maestro wanted to emphasize that both modern song and improvisation have been the last strongholds of medieval poetry in our days, relying on similar metrical and strophic resources. He also pointed out that musical works are created to be listened to, to be sung, not to be read, and therefore the emotion can come to us from the melody, the arrangement, as well as the lyrics themselves, with all the implications that this entails.

The first bars began and Alexis seemed determined to dispel any doubts that might still exist in some suspicious receiver. It is likely that he was aware of a valuable piece of advice that Marwán gave us a few days later on how to approach the beginning of a musical work.

In this regard, the singer-songwriter smilingly quoted Benjamin Prado, for whom there are two ways to start a film: one in which Cary Grant opens a door and enters a room, walks calmly around the place, grabs a book from the shelf and smokes a cigarette... and another in which Cary drives his head through the window pane, falls to the floor, the glass jumps through the air, with a lot of noise, capturing the attention of the viewers.

This is how Andrés Calamaro himself was presented in the second session of Song Writing, and not because his participation was announced did it cease to create the effect of the shattered window. On this occasion, to top it all off, the famous Argentine rocker entered our homes without the presence of microphones, lights, and even without his almost inseparable sunglasses, accompanied only by the mate that as a good porteño helps him to mix the ideas in his throat. And the fact is that Andrés did not come to Oralitura to fulfill one more obligation in his agenda, nor did he excuse himself (as it usually happens) announcing that he had to be brief, on the contrary.

It should be made clear that this galactic signing was not fortuitous; Andrés Calamaro shared the stage with Joaquín Sabina in the 1996 tour, ending his stage with Los Rodríguez, and opened Bob Dylan's concerts in Spain in 1999. Surely there are not many artists with such collaborations in their career. curriculum vitaeAs if that were not enough, El Salmón is one of the musicians who knows and enjoys talking about music and musicians.

He chatted in a relaxed way about poetry, rhymes, metrics, creative blocks, immersing us in a deep reflection that could include from personal anecdotes, routines and habits used in the act of creation, to the challenges imposed by the next music, that which is about to be created, in the middle of some forced feet that Alexis also introduced, or in response to questions that came from the chat and directly from some of those present, because we all wanted to listen to him, but also to talk to him.

Only the time, widely exceeded by the speaker and the resigned intervention of Pimienta, could put an end to his tireless exposition, although Calamaro did not say goodbye completely and offered himself generously for a future meeting; "you can count on me, Alexis", he assured, while he emitted another one of his accurate punch lineLife is short, but the days are long".. 

And the days between one weekend and the next began to become very long, where we returned every Saturday and Sunday to receive this kind of oral therapy, delving into the different types of rhyme, or dissecting verses based on their metrics.

Clara Martínez Cantón told us about the wonderful PoeMAS project and the meticulous work they do to find and compile poems set to music. On another occasion we studied the Spanish translation by the poet and mathematician Pedro Poitevín of the classic Dylanian poem Allong the WatchowerThe complexities imposed by the different syntactic structures of each language.

And it was also complicated to take up the challenge launched by Pimienta, when he urged us to musicalize and record the aforementioned translation and we had to make use of "techniques of oral tradition" to be able to combine text and melody in a coherent, unforced way.

Yes, because the Oralitura course includes much more than its class sessions and the academy also encourages exchange and play once the Zoom room is left. In this sense, although the focus is on oral arts and tradition, Oralitura relies on technological tools, creating forums and spaces for downloading and interaction among students at any time and from different places.

And in this almost familiar way, on a Sunday, the successful Spanish singer-songwriter Marwán sat next to us, who did not come to make an appearance and knew how to plan his visit without haste, in the middle of his tour Canciones para una urgencia (Songs for an emergency).

To the aforementioned method to start a musical work and the importance of the first verse of a song to capture the attention of the receiver, Marwán added several tips, fruits of a career with more than 20 years and with numerous and varied influences, among which he prefers to highlight Joan Manuel Serrat, Joaquín Sabina and Silvio Rodríguez.

By the way, in addition to Silvio and the close collaboration that Marwán maintains with Díaz Pimienta, other connections link him to Cuba. It was no coincidence that in November he participated, together with Victor Manuel, Ana Belén, Pedro Guerra, José María Vitier, Carlos Varela, Frank Delgado, among other artists, in the tribute offered at the Casa de América in Madrid, to celebrate the life of Pablo Milanés, one year after his death.

Nor is his work alien to Cuban lovers of singer-songwriters, although it is not known in its fair magnitude; personally I was lucky enough to "discover" him in 2014, after being presented with great respect by Pau Donés, at the Teatro Ópera in Buenos Aires, as a guest artist of Jarabe de Palo, or at least something of that I thought I explained to him when a few months ago he enjoyed, like me, the presentation of Frank Delgado in the Madrid room of Libertad 8.

And in this passionate way, Marwán came to Oralitura and explained with pedagogical vocation, for about two hours (to the sadness of many, who wanted to keep him for who knows how long) about numerous practical elements of great utility for those who face, professionally or amateur, the mysterious exercise of writing songs.

In those days, by the way, the presence of the great composers and performers Julieta Venegas and Natalia Lafourcade was already notorious among the students, despite the discreet profile maintained by both artists, hence Alexis announced, for the penultimate session, a special intervention by them and for this purpose he proposed that we send them any questions or concerns in advance, with a view to enriching a class that in advance was predicted to be a masterful one.

Alexis was quite right: what was to come was not little. Personally, I was very touched by the simplicity of these artists, who despite having two successful careers and the favor of both the critics and the public, retain a humility and modesty in danger of extinction.

Julieta Venegas began this intimate chat, who was surprised by the textual analysis of her topic Pure fantasy, prepared by Alexis Díaz Pimienta as a starter and then Natalia took the floor, for whom was reserved the study of one of her classics, down to the root.

Both of them then answered, in a very colloquial way, the questions that the oralitores We were able to address them, inquiring about their main influences, concerns, or asking for some personal advice in favor of the creative act.

We then learned from Julieta herself that at the beginning of her solo career she felt that she was creating very elaborate songs, which did not connect adequately with the public and distanced her from the composer she really wanted to be. In this regard, she cited the greatness and simplicity of José Alfredo Jiménez, one of her idols, and confessed that it has been precisely the search for that simplicity that has marked her later work.

While Julieta spoke about that stage, prior to her third album YesMy mind evoked her first visit to Cuba, in 2002 as part of a Cubadisco, and the euphoria she caused among those who attended her presentation at the Mella Theater; in that sense my memories allowed me the liberty of contradicting her a little.

In another answer she also admitted the importance of the song, regardless of what genre or style it belongs to; for Julieta this is something secondary to the act of creation. As a result of this unprejudiced thinking, we have, for example, the song Sorry BBcomposed and performed with Bad Bunny.

Personally, I had been surprised by a certain analysis made in previous days by Calamaro on the large amount of musical content that is uploaded daily to digital platforms and in that sense I asked for the opinion of both on how this reality could benefit or devalue music as a cultural product.

We are oversaturated with information, not just music," Julieta smiled, "but we decide how to listen to a song and when. She also pointed out that she prefers to listen album by album, although the platforms prioritize the random mode. In this regard, she believes that it is up to us to control and direct this search, and these platforms are also an ideal medium for this.

According to Natalia, it is wonderful to upload musical content in a simpler way, without the need of a record label, although she recognizes the complexity of this situation. She then quoted her father, a music stand musician who never dabbled in composition, and asked him: "Why more music, with all the music there is? Natalia, on the other hand, insists that you always have to make another song, if it comes much better, if it is little but in time, also. But yes: "make the songs you can create"."He said, referring to the care and search for the inner essence of each one of us.

For Natalia Lafourcade, neither the creative act nor the interpretation are negotiable, at all times the song, the word, must be honored, she admitted while confessing that in her works there is not a single verse placed to fill in.

In that same honest and committed way, each one was unraveling intimacies and transmitting their experiences, to the delight of all present. Alexis, restless from his chair, was rubbing his hands together and his brain was silently taking notes of every detail. None of us present could have predicted, and neither could the guests, that to put the finishing touch to that meeting, the following would come out of his cascading voice, some improvised tenths that turned out to be really touching.

Two months later I can assure you that the master had fallen short in his promotional announcement (and this must happen very seldom to the poet) to the satisfaction of the oralitores We saw our expectations exceeded, aware that we were witnesses and protagonists of unique moments, although perhaps repeatable. The magician of words said goodbye in the last session with a new invitation and, in tune with his surname, placed in a single sentence terms such as reggaeton, intelligence, culture... a new challenge in the form of a course, where he proposes to "dance with the text and think with the body.".

And the eternal poet does not like to leave in fadeNo, with Cary Grant leaning back on the sofa, calmly watching the horizon while he smokes another cigarette and the camera slowly moves up its angle towards the sky. At this point, Mr. Grant jumps up and then the windows fall one after the other before his unorthodox step. Dylan, for his part, plugs in the electric guitar, Sabina takes off his bowler hat and the oralitoresWe, also standing, did not stop applauding.