Liuba María Hevia: blessed serenade

Thus, like the title of one of the tracks of his most recent album To see you again (2022) fell on the auditorium, Liuba Ma. Hevia's concert on Saturday the 15th at the Martí Theater in the capital, a stage that the singer-songwriter praised as a powerful emblem of her -our- endearing Havana. It felt like a blessed serenade as she played many of the songs from this recent album, and others that allowed her to review her forty years of artistic life.

There is no need to say how fruitful they have been, how much poetry and music of the good ones, the author has given us throughout these decades: there is her twenty albums, along with so many other live performances that have given us body and soul, because Liuba is one of those who, without fanfare or gimmicks, gives herself entirely to that faithful public that always goes to meet her.

As part of the event Alma creadora, founded by the artist in 2015 with the aim of making women's creation visible, several meetings were offered: one for children in the workshop of Enid Rosales, who participated as a guest in another, at Bellas Artes, with a group of musicians who, although small in format, widened the musical universe to the point of transmitting it in all its melodic and harmonic potential.

The acoustic atmosphere fits perfectly with the new album which, paradoxically, opens up to "electronic atmospheres, Latin jazz airs and new sonorities in which she introduces the clarinet and harmonica and a greater presence of Caribbean timbres", as Lourdes Calafell acknowledges in the discographical note.

But it was enough the presence of an outstanding disciple of master Efraín Amador, the guitarist Eduardo Corcho, on the lute -an essential instrument given the recurrent incursions of the composer in the guajira-; Arnulfo Guerra on bass, guitars and vocals; José Borges (flute and harmonica); and in the choirs, the bassist Camiela Fellibert (young troubadour of strong personality, beautiful timbre and attentive authorial flight judging by the own song she gave as a gift). All these musicians, in these and other instruments, are present in the credits of the recent phonogram, recorded at Lucía Huergo studio and mixed and mastered at Abdala Studios.

The value of To see you again was enough to make me yearn to have the disc at home: the "profession of faith" that this beautiful piece emits, the tenderness of So is your lovethe playful party that constitutes the Coffee kissesor the honest "ars poetica"that beats behind Let it count that I know, let it count that I am.

But, in the end, the troubadour tried a tight tour through the three and a half decades of her career, where there was no shortage of emblematic moments: the self-homage to the twenty-five years of a successful album (From the verse to the sea), from which watermarks such as Si me falta tu sonrisa or Absencesrecorded then with Silvio Rodríguez and that now arrived as a duet with a colleague of her rank: Lázara Rivadavia, who also entertained us with For what elseone of her beautiful boleros.

And of course there was the children's song, along with the confession of the infinite privilege of working for "those giants" that are the children and in this block a hit that transcends them, Stele, cinnamon granite. It is worth recognizing how deeply this language has permeated his authorial DNA, that sometimes "adult" songs are nourished by it, together with the vast bucolic imagery to which he frequently resorts (With a sprig of marjoramtimely opening).

The singer-songwriter paid tribute to Eusebio Leal, the mentor of whom with Angel and Habaneras -The album and the piece revered this beloved capital and the genre of Hispanic roots to which it has contributed so much; to Miriam Ramos -in her facet as a great composer that has been unfairly relegated for the great interpreter she is-; to Pablo Milanés, with whom she recorded one of her unforgettable duets; to the Asturian grandfather who led her to thread finely With the threads of the moon... Beautiful the offering of honors to the migrants who have been in all times.

He did not fail to mention his face and grateful facet as an interpreter of tangos (Cambalacheby Santos Discépolos) nor the imprint of Silvio, an unavoidable reference, who arrived from the reclaimed encore (I give you a song).

Liuba's outstanding participation in the videoclip allowed several of them, backing many of the pieces that were played in the concert, to be incorporated into the stage design from the audiovisual point of view, enriching its imagery.

And she, full from her voice that is always received as a simple but sincere caress, from the intelligent and fair dialogue, gave us an evening that could only be crowned with the abundant and prolonged applause that closed the evening. Blessed Serenade of that (intensely) creative soul.