Cubadisco: Beginning and End in Women's Voices

This year, the main institutional event of Cuban music featured several local and foreign women in its program. The first of the guests was the Spanish singer-songwriter and composer Rozalén, who gave a concert at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater, which proved the popularity of the Spanish artist among us.

Holder of two Gold Records, the 2021 National Current Music Award, several Latin Grammy nominations and the Regional Merit Plaque of the Community of Castilla-La Mancha (where she is from), she arrived accompanied by a couple of musicians from her band (the talented Ismael Guijarro and Álvaro Gandul) and her faithful sign interpreter, Beatriz Romero, always by her side, communicating to deaf and hard of hearing people the messages that vibrate in her music.

The concert began with a compliment and the statement that she was afraid "to sing for the most musical people in the world". We know that many of our guests are gentle like that, but in her case it felt sincere, and she proved it throughout almost two hours. Rozalén is a pop performer who subtly and creatively incorporates cells and sonorities of Spanish folklore, both in her own compositions and when she delivers rhythms and airs of the peoples of the peninsula (fandangos, pasodobles, sevillanas...) accompanied by her multi-instrumentalist companions who alternate strings and minor percussion or voices, and by her almost omnipresent bandurria, or by the guitar, which she incorporates according to the requirements of the setlist.

Rozalén with Beatriz Romero at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater. Photo: Heydy Montes de Oca

Thus, he recalled previous albums with a potpourri that reviewed several of his numbers (Berlin, Caged birds) and, above all, exposed the most recent one: MatrixThis is one of the Cubadisco International awards of this edition, which, as its name indicates, vehemently shows the roots and directions of her music and also explains the empathy that Rozalén feels for ours. To several hits some of which were chanted by the audience, such as The open door, Living and Sunflowers —he should have done as encores—, the Spaniard added personal tributes to Silvio Rodríguez, to whom she confessed to feel indebted, by means of that ars poeticathat act of human reaffirmation that is Mace. Another tribute was dedicated to his fellow countryman and friend Luis Eduardo Aute, who practically gave him the gift of his song The beautyand that the artist projected doing full honor to the title. There was also a moment to remember another illustrious countryman, the (very musical) poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.

With a very well timbre and beautifully colored voice, María de los Ángeles Rozalén Ortuño exudes natural grace, and judging by what we saw here, she is one of those who sprinkles her concerts with nice or heartfelt anecdotes and comments, with the balance of knowing how to combine them with the music without overflowing, unlike some who sometimes do not realize that they can saturate their performance and fatigue the audience. 

Another extraordinary performer who was among us in these intense days of full theaters, was the Colombian Marta Gomez, based in Barcelona since 2009 but faithful to the deep roots of her land and of all Latin America, which she addresses either in its pure expression or "contaminated" by jazz twists, in a profitable pairing. With her presentation, this singer-songwriter who got her start in the streets of Boston, where she was recognized in 2006 for the "Best National World Music Act", made us fall in love at first listen.

In her first concert at the event she was accompanied by the very Cuban Enid Rosales (Cuban tres and vocals) whom she considers her musical "soul mate". Enid enriched her already juicy songs with her powerful contralto voice and her unquestionable talent for the native plucked string.

Marta Gómez with singer-songwriter Enid Rosales. Photo: Heydy Montes de Oca

With a nuanced timbre that shines in the middle and high registers, Marta Gómez captivated the audience from her "cover letter", in which she linked different melodic lines that she recorded while intoning, and then sequenced them. This was followed by songs such as Basildedicated to a young miner from Potosí (Bolivia), which represents the sad face of human exploitation in so many areas of our countries; and the anti-war manifesto represented by the tender and lyrical For the war nothing. He also shared some moments from his new album such as Ritualito (a song that he dedicated "to my admired and beloved Gema Corredera" -sic-), and the combative Women's hands. 

Despite her artistic dimension, this sort of Colombian Joan Baez -recognized at the Latin Grammys, the World Musical Europe, and the Just Plain Folks- confesses to being a humble disciple of her friend Liuba Maria Hevia, whom she used to listen to in Spanish nightclubs, and who is also responsible for her previous visits to Cuba, invited to the Almas Creadoras event, directed by the Cuban.

At the closing of Cubadisco, the capital's audience had a second date with Marta Gómez, accompanied by none other than the OrquNational Symphony Orchestra (OSN) to present its most recent album, Symphonic, 20 years -originally Philharmonic, 20 years-which eventually received another of the fair's international awards.

Marta Gómez at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater. Photo: Heydy Montes de Oca

Some of the themes already heard in her previous concert, came now with the splendid clothing of the OSN under the baton of its chief conductor, maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa. The collective managed to assume and transmit the folkloric airs of the region and the pentatonic scales of South American Andean music that nurture the Colombian troubadour, who once again wasted her sympathy and pleasant stage presence, based on simplicity and delicacy, to converse and explain the stories that make up her repertoire. Titles such as Look at me, Carnavaliando, Carry me on your wings, I wait for you, Life is about to begin or When it all happens were new and pleasant surprises that confirmed the value and high carats of this singer-songwriter, who undoubtedly brought some of the best moments of this recently concluded Cubadisco.

It is really nice to be able to enjoy in the same week in this city two artists that, although they have not been embraced by the mainstreamare authentic and surely enduring jewels of Hispano-American music.