{"id":9739,"date":"2022-02-23T00:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T05:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/?p=9739"},"modified":"2022-04-30T15:42:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T19:42:23","slug":"mendo-alex-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/mendo-alex-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendo \/ Alex Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Cuba, &quot;mend\u00f3&quot; means talent, grace, innate virtue. For the RAE, however, something &quot;mendoso&quot; does not look like any of these things. Failure, slip, blunder, that&#039;s what it looks like. While \u201cmend\u00f3\u201d is distilled from the Cuban sap, \u201cmendoso\u201d cracks with Iberian severity. You have to see, in this heads or tails, where \u00c1lex Cuba turns heads and where the coin will land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eighth album, 11 songs, seven collaborations, one version and no tension. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mendo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Caracol Records, 2021) is an album with a serene, almost phlegmatic temperament. Since \u00c1lex Cuba quit smoking, behind his healthy breathing, he has a clearer voice with an almost pale coloration. He slides it through mambo, funk, flamenco, salsa, all on a jazzy foundation. And well, being a jazz player by training, everything flows wonderfully for him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The guest artist on duty also seems to be at peace with tempos and mixes. Perhaps because among the ingredients is the genre where he moves with pleasure. Just look at Gilberto Santa Rosa in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at me<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a Cuban point with a lot of tumbao in which, thanks to the mere appearance of his voice, he can take us back to love <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">heavy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and slimy that our parents idealized. Or Antonio Carmona interpreting <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gypsy Heart<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a song for the up-and-comers, for those who come with a lot of light and happiness, just because, as if to remember the times of Ketama. And to Cimafunk, who doesn&#039;t miss an opportunity to throw his party and radiate <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">glow<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wherever you go. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">talking x talking<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gives the notes to which we are accustomed, with that voice to which the sequins do not come off. In the end, all to taste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"youtube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zY7BCoBeAMA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They sing sparse letters<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in which it is somewhat difficult to concentrate. They have a strange lethargic effect, the theme as a whole seems like a nebulous choir wearing away towards infinity, on a melodic base always prone to monotony. This impression is caused, above all, by <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for two<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This ridiculous ballad would suffice to remind us that it is never essential to say something. It is not that expressing oneself is forbidden, but, paraphrasing a Sorrentino lesson, given through one of his characters: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The world doesn&#039;t have to care about your pain<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The problem is not your pain, but that your pain is not original.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The songs sound good, it must be specified, and the composition in all of them is impeccable, but even in a theme that aspires to spread some joy like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">H x H<\/span><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jazzed up version of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">talking x talking<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the album&#039;s energy remains subdued. Not simple, relaxing, or smooth. Faint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They didn&#039;t want to tweak the initial ideas too much to keep the emotions intact and that&#039;s fine. But within the things to take care of, there is also time. If what we are humming does not exceed a minute, if that is the duration necessary to manage to concentrate an emotion, it is better not to delay it to reach the canonical 3:44.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cornerstone of the album&#039;s production, commented \u00c1lex Cuba, was intuition. Something magical, divinities manifesting themselves through the interiority of man, melodies dictated to the ear, nature expressing itself through the voice. It may be, who knows.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nobody really knows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The dilemma of spontaneity and revelations, especially in the case of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mendo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has a possible answer on the cover. It may be in my head, but in \u00c1lex Cuba&#039;s head there is a red nimbus with a cross <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">destined, by the way, to the image of Jesus<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a color palette reminiscent of<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a Russian icon. To paint an icon, you first had to see it in an epiphany. It could happen, but later, at the time of painting it, there was a consensual, traditional, very earthly visual language, mediating between man and the purity of vision. All the gold and stylized figures didn&#039;t reach as much light and landed in the scheme. because no one has<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Midas touch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"youtube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vn-c6tY_LPw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there is a song, among all, that could make the most skeptical doubt. It came to him in one night, at the time when only illuminations can occur, and in silence he tried to write down what he had just heard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From some pretty woman my paths were forged<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From some pretty woman my paths were forged<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walking in a white night with the moon there in the sky<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My shadow didn&#039;t scare me\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My shadow didn&#039;t scare me\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now I am a new man.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He put an end point and, with rhythms typical of the New World, created a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New world<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There is a thick landscape, with depth, something in it breathes. The song asks you to listen carefully, even if you don&#039;t understand it. The image comes first, the understanding later. That is important, an image arrives, with it its estrangement and beauty. The accompaniment, the choir, the voice of Lila Downs, the ups, the downs. Nothing is missing, nothing is left over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New world<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it is an exception for an album whose rule was not to have found the mend\u00f3. Nor, on the contrary, could it be said that everything in the attempt was mendacious. In heads or tails, in the end, the coin landed on its edge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In any case, from what fire was born <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New world<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">? Divinities manifesting through man, melodies dictated to the ear, nature poured into the voice. It may be, who knows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Listen <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3MK857B\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Mendo<\/em><\/a> here.<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eighth album, 11 songs, seven collaborations, one version and no tension. Mend\u00f3 is an album with a serene, almost phlegmatic temperament. You have to see, in this heads or tails, where \u00c1lex Cuba turns heads and where the coin will land.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1552,"featured_media":9740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[5485,360,8837,8839,8721,8838],"coauthors":[8732],"class_list":["post-9739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resenas","tag-alex-cuba","tag-cimafunk","tag-hablando-x-hablar","tag-lila-downs","tag-mendo","tag-mundo-nuevo"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Alex-Cuba-_-portada.jpg?fit=1520%2C695&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9739"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11006,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions\/11006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9739"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}