FIC Gibara is watching over the music!

Gibara is a mother that ages slowly, she welcomes you every August with the same enthusiasm, but little by little you see her wrinkles, the streets lose their color and more buildings are covered by a mantle of abandonment. The mother who, in her vaporous blue skirts, welcomes every cry of happiness and sadness or scolds you heatedly when you haven't eaten for many hours in the morning. At the International Poor Film Festival, family, neighbors, friends and all of us who receive the invitation gather to celebrate, expectant of what will happen in the new edition: what film we will fall in love with, what musician we will discover, with whom we will dance; avoiding at all costs a premature nostalgia that can find you if you look too much to the sea. And what is Gibara for the inhabitants of the head municipality of Holguin? Another home, the place where your family used to take you on vacation when you were a child and where you now go with colleagues when you get bored in summer and it is not yet a festival. That place where all the westerners come to marvel and you just watch them and say "yes, marvel with reason".

For Jose Enrique Rodriguez, better known as Pipo, pianist and director of Sintergia Jazz Collective, this FIC was the first time he was able to play in Holguin with his band, a year after having gone to the capital "looking for a way". A graduate of the Conservatory of Music of Holguín José María Ochoa, Pipo is that easy-going guy that everyone knew in town because he would stop to improvise with the troubadours, or at the jam sessions of the Romerías de Mayo. He decided to leave for the ISA in Havana in 2023, where he quickly became very close to his fellow scholarship students and shared with them some of his own songs that had never seen the light of day. The rest is history, the same story of so many "Palestinian" Holguineros in the capital, who find their niche and start to create in order to survive (economically and spiritually). At last he returned, to share with his usual friends, with the smile and curly hair that identify him everywhere, but more excited, more smiling, because in Gibara his colleagues from the capital and the new representatives of jazz in the city of parks came together.

Sintergia Jazz Collective is integrated by Marco Antonio Prades (saxophone, Santiago de Cuba), Gabriela Muriedas (saxophone, Havana), Luis Ernesto Martínez (drums, Matanzas), David Ribalta (bass, Matanzas), Panchito González (trumpet, Holguín), Jesús Darío Bordón (clarinet, Cienfuegos), Pipo on piano and Anahi Saura, from Havana, on production. It aims to bring jazz to young Cubans, draws influences from alternative music, rock, funk, pop and arises from the desire to have something of its own, something outside the academic environment. If you know someone who thinks jazz is boring and slow, take them to listen to Sintergia and if you can't, wait until next year for the release of the album. From Holguínto change their perspective. The Club Nautico hosted them in a night like no other, full of guests such as Claudio Gonzalez (Misifuz), Hernan Cortes (Mosaiko), Redi Fernández (flutist), Arian Pol Lamour (didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument of Australian origin), Tobias Alfonso (El Mono Lácteo), Andy Guerra (pianist), Oscar Martínez (Boomerang) and an energy that enveloped every member of the audience and made them levitate.

Photo: María Lucía Expósito

When it comes to big events, Pipo is clear that nothing is perfect, he himself dealt with the producers of FIC and saw firsthand their commitment and concern that everything went as well as possible, the buses that brought and brought the musicians staying in Caletones (for lack of space in Gibara) were never lacking, as well as food in the designated restaurants. "These are difficult times, with many shortages, the Caletones [lodging] was not ideal, because it prevented the guests from enjoying the activities that took place in the early morning, but we must be fair and value what could be done," he tells me with the humility that characterizes him, "with respect to last year, I felt that this one was much better and I have faith that the next one will continue to improve". More than anything else, this FIC was a goal accomplished for the young jazzman from Holguín, a thank you to the land and friends who have always supported him. After spending some time with Sergio Ochoa, founder and lead singer of Boomerang, he could say that Gibara has been his godmother, guiding him and reminding him of the value of music and creation in his life. Sergio has six FIC Gibara in his skin, from the age of 16, with his parents, to 27 with his own group; formed in September 2019, he only keeps from the original musicians Frank Fonte, bassist, musical director and producer, and Simón Ibáñez, pianist and arranger -although he has seen an increase in his staff due to format changes-.

Photo: María Lucía Expósito

The night Boomerang played I had no rest, bringing son and chachachá to the present day through fusion and alternative music. I had already seen Sergio in action a while before, playing with Fito del Rio and La Granja, because due to budget issues they proposed to the organization to bring the three groups (Boomerang, La Granja and Frank Fonte) as one: Due to the exodus of recent times these artists have their independent projects, but play for the others; this solution allowed each one to have their moment and was economically more sustainable. Sergio enjoyed each space, he interacted with the public as a showmanHe thanked me, made us laugh and later emphasized the beauty of playing with his friends.

But the anecdote that makes me qualify Gibara as a godmother in Sergio's family tree dates back to his first festival. It would be Gibara 2019, in the concert of a Spanish indie group, which whispered in his ear like a siren song: "come on, you can also play with a group up there," and decided to create Boomerang.

There was no need to ask if he will repeat next year, there is a small malecon in Sergio's mind that he is from Gibara and not from Havana. I ask him precisely about the organization and he tells me: "if I spend work in Havana, I spend work in Gibara, but we laugh at everything, I have faith that it can get better". While some artists staying at Caletones were content to leave the festival at one o'clock in the morning, others woke up or slept on the couch or in a friend's apartment. Fito del Rio and the rental house where I was with other habaneros. FIC Gibara is that space where you go from listening and admiring someone on your cell phone, to having him sitting at the table having breakfast and sharing stories, and boy, does Fito have stories!

The first time I heard SacrificeI remember feeling a shocking power in her voice, a tearing full of feelings that there was no other way to understand but to close your eyes and let yourself be carried away.

Photo: María Lucía Expósito

I saw Fito on the streets of Gibara a couple of times, always smiling, walking as if he knew them by heart, it is a mistake to label him in one genre or another, in one "urban tribe" or another, because when he got on stage he was still that boy with wide shirts and disheveled hair and also a great storyteller that made the audience vibrate, who already knew their songs, even if it was their first time in the Villa de los cangrejos. We are not the same after that concert, from time to time it still resonates with me. You carry an island inside you. He confessed to me that he usually has great expectations and works to make sure they are fulfilled, "I felt listened to, that is what I always look for, that people open up, open their hearts, their minds and become sensitive, it was also very nice to play with friends who have their own groups, who understand the responsibility and what these moments mean". These friends were Tobias Alfonso on piano, Frank Fonte on bass, Claudio Fernandez on flute, Hernan Cortes on flute and Hernan Cortes on guitar. drumSergio Ochoa on backing vocals and Waldo Ramirez on guitar. In the original format, Hernan or Jorge Fernandez plays the drums, and José Fernandez plays the piano.

"I would love to repeat next year, but there are some production issues that I hope can be improved... The life of the festival is given by the audience, one can try to find the words, but there is no greater truth than that."

As a member of the Gibareño family, this is my second year in a row staying for the entire festival, my fourth year of knowing the festival, and my favorite story of this edition is one that everyone who knows me already knows by heart. Two days later, I was exploring the Gibarean parks one afternoon, looking for a place to eat, and the tune of Meteoritefollowed by Tobias' voice. I remember stopping in my tracks and asking my companion, almost trembling, to stop for a moment and follow the music. There they were, in the Siglo XX, playing unexpectedly he and Adrián, another musician I followed on Instagram and that today I call friend. The tremors increased when, at the end of that piece, Tobías said that the Gibara experience was very nice and he would sing a song that reflected that, wanting to return. While I would have loved to interview him properly, he is very focused on his art and his feelings, I'm left with his most honest self, the one who got excited when he was given a notebook to write new songs, the one who from one moment to another showered Adrian with compliments (and truths) about the sincerity of his art and his Creole guitar in the era of electric guitars and, above all, the one who started playing and singing while we waited for a ride home that we did not know what time it would arrive. The dairy monkey surfed the waters of Gibara with his music, my greatest joy was to witness it.

Photo: María Lucía Expósito

FIC of course also honors the great musicians of our culture, giving the new generations the opportunity to get to know them personally, listen to them live, dance with them, and realize that the song their grandparents are singing is the work of the instrumentalists in front of them. The first concert of the festival was given by the Original Orchestra of Manzanillo, still directed by Pachi Naranjo, who took the lead at the age of 14, until today with 74 years. It is admirable the artistic journey of this group, taking into account its place of origin and its format; almost as a metaphor of the festival itself, which has managed to fight against the so-called "geographical fatalism" benefiting projects that do not find their niche elsewhere. And to close we enjoyed Manolito Simonet and his Trabuco, who allowed us to spend all the energy that remained on that last night.

Photo: María Lucía Expósito

Although perhaps the most emotional moment was the presentation of David Blanco, feeling loudly "I sing to my beloved Cuba, the land of my love".

It is hard to say goodbye to Gibara, we all have a little piece of life there in the thousand and one adventures you have in five days; perhaps that is why it is imperative to return, because once Gibara claims you as its own, there is no way to change your last name. Time stops and resumes every year, bonds are strengthened and problems lose magnitude, that is its magic. That, and the family you create.