Who is Jose Carlos Hidalgo?

After the publication of my cartography of the new wave of the habanera song in Magazine AM:PM, A claim came up that caught my attention a lot: the absence of José Carlos Hidalgo. 

At the time, José Carlos was not included in the aforementioned article for two specific reasons. The first, the disassociation of the artist from the media plane, which makes him invisible, at least for a part of the public that follows this guild. The second, the impossibility of accessing his work, which is not available to the consumer on digital platforms. Only a small number of people have in their possession very informal recordings of his songs, which the artist himself has dedicated himself to copying on Zapya or sending via Telegram —and which now, for the publication of this text, this magazine has posted, with his consent, on SoundCloud—. 

Also, their physical presentations are scarce and with little promotion; so that José Carlos Hidalgo is practically a non-existent character in the imagination of lovers of the genre today. ANDHe prefers to walk among shadows and mysteries, rowing impassable through an outrage of the conventional, that is why he is not media-oriented or ambitious, although he probably does not need to be either. For this reason, it was not prudent to place him among the artists mentioned in that previous text, since his name does not play a decisive role in relation to that scene (which, let us not forget, includes the public), as those who appear there do. 

This is not to say that the singer-songwriter lacks quality and future potential compared to his contemporaries. On the contrary, it is the one that, in a certain way, has the best number of hits per presentation. I've witnessed how hypnotic he is live, how people are paralyzed listening to him, even without having the slightest idea who this guy is who, guitar in hand and without introductions, begins to sing. 

Generally as a guest of Fito del Río, Richard Fando or Carlos Fariñas, José Carlos Hidalgo has occasionally played on Havana's alternative stages during these couple of years of pandemic. I particularly remember his half-hour concert at one of the meetings of CUBAO exhibitions in December 2020. As soon as he hit the first note, the hundred and a half people who made up the audience at La Madriguera remained static, pending his voice, his interpretive catharsis, his performative depth. That night was the talk; most of them did not know him, however —I say this without fear of being wrong— they all left dazzled. 

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Leave that trova

Raymar Aguado Hernandez14.01.2022

Thus, in addition to his inexplicable intimidation, the counterpart of his talent, in recent months, welcomed by the art-institution, it shows greater visibility and creative ambition. In an attempt to do him justice, after the previous deliberate omission, I share a series of questions I asked him and the answers he gave me. 

CYou started practically at the same time as most of the singer-songwriters of the younger Havana generation. Carlos Fariñas was your guitarist for a while, they say, and  one of Your first concerts were with Fito del Río. So why haven't you taken charge of exploiting digital platforms and promotional spaces, as your contemporaries do? 

“It is not something that I have decided…, or perhaps tacitly yes. I can't answer the question clearly. Indeed, I have not yet done any of those things, as ridiculous as it sounds now as I write. In two months it will be 27 tacos [years] and I have hardly moved. To be honest I'm too carefree. No makeup: I'm lazy. I would like to have a greater disposition, but both the hostility of the context and the falsehoods make me stay in the same place, without much encouragement”. 

What would be your definition of trova? Does the trova exist? Do you think it is of interest in our context? Do you consider yourself a troubadour?

“For me, trova is the song that has a language that is not necessarily complex or cryptic, but necessarily beautiful. Then the music goes by the author's tastes and influences, although it's hard for me to conceive it if I don't do it from the guitar.

“Obviously it exists, and it can be of interest. The sensitivity is there, you just have to tickle it. I know many people who have valued my songs and yet they usually say that ʽthey don't like trova'.

“Am I a minstrel? So I do not think so. I lack attitude. But maybe my music does fit the concept. I, particularly, see my songs as that: songs. They represent nothing other than what they say. It depends on how they are felt by whoever listens to them”.

Many within the guild, mainly in the most elite sector of poets and singer-songwriters, consider you "the best exponent of your generation”, even some of your contemporaries in the song. What can you say about it? 

“Whoever says that will have their reasons. Many of those who say it appreciate me. I generally don't like it. I think that only on the interpretive level can a supposed superiority be evidenced. The truth is that I greatly admire my generation, they are very talented and have known how to grow, but they fail a lot in the interpretive part; perhaps that is why these criteria exist, although I do not fully share them”.  

Jose Carlos Hidalgo. Photo: Angie Cotalero.

What is the presentation that you enjoyed the most? 

“I haven't performed much, nor in many places. If I had to choose, I would choose a concert at La casa de la Bombilla Verde, centuries ago, in which, by the way, Carlos Fariñas was also present, but in another facet than the current one; also Fito as a guest, and I felt very good. Thanks to Mauricio Figueiral, Fito and I did another presentation at the Casa del Alba that I also enjoyed very much. I felt like a real musician and, although not everything turned out as I would have liked, it had great moments and was extremely special to me. Richard Fando recently invited me to play at his rock, and it was wonderful from my perspective, especially because of the desire he had to sing in front of the public”. 

How do you remember that half hour concert in December 2020 at La Madriguera as part of a meeting of CUBAO exhibitions? I have an indelible memory of that. 

“That presentation at La Madriguera was brutal. There were many friends who now no longer live in Cuba, good friends. It was also my mother's birthday, my father was also there and obviously singing for them is always special. There were a lot of people. There I also felt like a musician. Thanks to CUBAO —although they haven't called me again—”. (Laughter). 

How does José Carlos Hidalgo see himself from here at some time?

“Five years from now I see myself with at least one record. But mostly happy."

José trace its composition route from a visceral sense. Interpellations to a second enigmatic person are common in his songs, to later decant into a human whole. This is visible in topics such as Your heart where we can hear the following: “Your heart speaks of the balance of luck. / A way of managing the song / (…) We are all sustained / by a colossal heart / that invokes a better time with its beats”. Later in reasons to the sea, sings: “Life tell what is dying / to the needle that thorns you / in the palm of your love. / Troubadour waning moon, of lust for meaning, of reasons towards the sea”. 

It has in songs like When there's nothing leftyes my only plan a game of redemptions and transcendentalisms that lie in verses like these: “A woman becomes eternal the moment she disappears, / when the whole soul shudders / when the song wants to come out of us, / when we have nothing else left” or “I am not going to be what they expect of me, / and I do not act with evil, I am only human. / My only plan is to stay happy, / even if the future insists on trampling my hands.  

The fluidity and subtlety of his singing breaks down the most conventional positions of this genre and has managed to afford a unique and wonderful style. Thus, from the interpretation, he creates states of emotion that, hand in hand with the measure of his performance, only evokes shock and tears. Topics like I understand everything and his looseness of arpeggios that are lost and return are part of the essence of his songs. 

Always attractive are its harmonic blocks, which act as a cushion for the verse, although they never appeal to imbalance. It is very curious how in José Carlos it is impossible to see imbalances between the different elements of the song. He is very in tune, an excellent poet, a fine guitarist and, furthermore, a superb composer. Usually, each exponent of this generation highlights a particular element in order to cover some lack in another field. However, in José Carlos I have never noticed pretensions to supply shortcomings. I think that —although they exist— it doesn't let them see. He knows himself and knows where he is going, what note will give him trouble, what verse gets him nowhere, what chord doesn't go with him. That's why it's so accurate. It is a whole, where nothing is left over and nothing is missing. It is the constant maturation.  

It could be said that it is the typical archetype of the “troubadour”, but it is not like that. He knew how to find an aesthetic transit that overlaps many styles: the riffs, the fugue passages, the insinuations at the wrong time and the interesting melodic transitions are part of that contribution that it makes in a certain way, while complementing it with a fundamental element: simplicity. His compositions are diaphanous, but with character, they have a dose of daring given, mainly, by his coherence His discourse moves from the mundane to the transcendental, without getting lost in “metalocks” or functional molds; it simply flows from a poetics that manages to be consistent with the song. 

José Carlos goes through the thousand stitches of a poet, although he doesn't consider himself one, and I don't dare to do it either. He is something else. It has the aura of a bard and a minstrel, but it deconstructs the ghosts that sniff around in the so-called trova, achieving a kind of metamorphosis that presents both yesterday and the future. Of few words, it seems that he has spent them all after each song. Its best definition is found in that waste of virtue that masks virtuosity. 

His poetry lacks structure, it lacks the cliché of the catchy and easy chorus, the metric is out of control —which brings him closer to Santi Feliú, but one element differentiates them poetically: Santiago's lyrics are totally crazy, while José Carlos's is rope and measure, without eagerness to transgress; although that fact alone transgresses.

Alone, with the guitar, he endures the onslaught of his music. I wonder if you need company. It would be a daring experiment, although I assimilate it better that way, without pretensions or jarring haste. His contemporaries found the sound in the complement, they have slipped into the sarabande of this histrionic generation, but José is still there, in a place of calm and waves, seeking or asking for his "reasons towards the sea" where there is a square of resistance, of fidelity, which enjoys it and eternalizes it.   

I don't know what the future may hold for him, only the deities know. Thus, crouched between rituals and idylls, he embraces and transmutes. Time will know how to place it. For now, I think it is the duty of every aspiring esthete to know José's work, which is, clearly, a lesson in beauty.