Overview:
Legendary Cuban troubadour Pablo Milanés presente!
[by Chuy Varela; featured photo: Cuban music icon Pablo Milanés performs at Plaza Mayor in Medellín, Colombia on Oct. 1, 2015. Photo by David Estrada Larrañeta /FNPI]
The passing of Cuban troubadour Pablo Milanés on Tuesday, November 22, at the age of 79 left behind a “profound sadness” as Cuban singer-songwriter, Carlos Varela expressed on the day he died. “His work and his beautiful and inimitable voice shall be tattooed forever in my heart, in my soul, and in that of numerous generations.”
Pablito, as he was widely known to the Cuban people, was an iconic figure internationally, who co-founded the Cuban Nueva Trova along with Silvio Rodriguez, Noel Nicolla, and others. It was a new song movement that spoke to a generation not only in Cuba but throughout the Spanish-speaking world about resistance, fighting oppression, raising social consciousness and love.
“Pablo Milanés is one of the greatest Cuban artists of all times,” writes Pablo Menéndez (the iconic guitarist/bandleader of Mezcla, and a friend of Milanés), from Havana, Cuba. “He was a bridge between earlier (musical) styles and one of the main creators of the Nueva Trova. He also bridged genres of Son, Jazz, Filin (feeling), Trova, Rock and Afro-Cuban music. His songs are part of the soundtrack of generations of Cubans.”
Born in Bayamo, Cuba, on February 24, 1943, he was six years old when his family moved to Havana in the 1950s. Pablo began formal musical studies at the prestigious Municipal Conservatory, but he always said he learned the most singing on the streets and in nightclubs. He began to perform at the age of 15 and was considered a bohemian hanging around musicians and singers who sang the jazzy boleros described as “Filin” (Feeling).
Outspoken, Milanés was incarcerated in 1965 for criticizing the Fidel Castro-led Cuban regime and was sent to do military service in a work camp for anti-socials. He escaped and was imprisoned again before he found his place in the arts. In 1969, Milanés and Silvio Rodriguez formed the pioneer, Grupo De Experimentación Sonora del Icaic, and ushered in the Nueva Trova, considered the unofficial music of the Cuban Revolution. It gave life to a new musical language of poetic expression and diverse musical influences.
With themes of love and social consciousness, they struck a chord that spoke to the oppressed conditions throughout Mexico, Latin America and around the world and were considered the cultural ambassadors of Fidel Castro. Pablo Menéndez was a teenager when he joined the pioneer, Grupo De Experimentación Sonora, and recalls the impact the group had.
“For many years in the ‘70s, Pablo’s songs were part of the Cuban Music passed clandestinely among young people in Spain during the Franco fascist dictatorship, as well as in Argentina, while it was under the military junta. When Spain’s dictator Franco died, I was part of a tour in Spain with the Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora with Pablo as one of the lead singers that ended with a concert in Madrid that was totally sold out, and around two thousand people outside battling with riot police.”
Packing auditoriums and stadiums in Latin America and Europe the Nueva Trova Cubana caught the ear of the transnational recording companies. In 1973, Pablo Milanés made his first recordings and songs like his iconic piece, “Yolanda” and “Yo Me Quedo”, became anthems to his legions of fans. But his revolutionary spirit and creativity went beyond his own verses.
“(Pablo) had a brilliant talent for setting poems to music like the verses of Jose Marti, the diary of Ho Chi Minh, and writing great songs for Ho Chi Minh and Angela Davis,” adds Menendez.
“I remember his Song for Latin American Unity, and his song about the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, (as well as) ‘Yo pisaré las calles nuevamente’ (I will walk the streets once again), as much as his most famous love songs.”
“The success of Silvio and Pablo is the success of the revolution,” Fidel Castro proclaimed in 1982 at a reception held to honor Rodriguez and Milanés and the Nueva Trova Cubana they co-founded. While Milanés remained loyal to the Cuban Revolution he used his celebrity status to push for social reforms.
It is estimated Pablo Milanés released more than 40 albums as a solo artist with numerous collaborations around the world in his five-decade-long career. He won two Latin Grammy Awards in 2006 for his album, “Como Un Campo De Maiz” (Like A Cornfield), and for “AM/PM, Lineas Paralelas” (AM/PM, Parallel lines), a collaboration with Puerto Rican salsa singer Andy Montanez.
He also won numerous Cuban honors including the Alejo Carpentier medal in 1982 and the National Music Prize in 2005, and the 2007 Haydee Santamaria medal from the Casa de las Americas for his contributions to Latin American culture.
Pablito relocated to Spain in 2004 where he lived with his wife and two sons. He was married five times and is survived by his wife, Nancy Pérez, and their children, Rosa Parks Milanés Perez and Pablo; his daughters Lynn Milanés Benet and Liam Milanés Benet, both with his second wife, Yolanda Benet; his children, Mauricio Blanco Álvarez, Fabien Pisani Álvarez and Haydée Milanés Álvarez, with his third wife, Zoe Álvarez; and his son Antonio, with his fourth wife, Sandra Perez. Another daughter with Ms. Benet, Suylén Milanés, died in January.
No stranger to San Francisco, Milanés last performed at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on Oct. 16, 2021. He gave his last concert in Havana, Cuba, on June 21, 2022 to over 10,000 people. “His massive concert in Havana this year was a farewell to what he described, as his best audience ever, the people of Cuba,” concludes Menéndez.
