Music Fund for Cuba presents Silvio Rodríguez and his band ‘Hombre de las mil canciones’
For one night only the Godfather of the Cuban Nueva Trova movement performs his first London show for 15 years. With a unique supporting set by friends of the Music Fund for Cuba featuring John Williams, Madness, Ska Cubano plus very special guests. It will be on Friday 22nd September 2006 7.30pm Barbican Centre, London Box.
Silvio Rodríguez: continuing to make the soundtrack of the Cuban . On 22nd September, London will be honoured with the presence of the legendary godfather of the Cuban Nueva Trova movement, Silvio Rodríguez.
A very rare visitor to Britain, this will be truly a night to remember. Nueva Trova (best translated as ‘new song’) is a form of protest music incorporating influences from Cuban traditional and popular genres plus jazz, rock, European classical music, led from the late ‘60s in revolutionary Cuba by Silvio, Pablo Milanés, Noel Nicola, Sara Gonzalez, Pedro Luís Ferrer and with roots in the songs of Carlos Puebla and other traditional trova artists. ‘Trova’ comes from ‘trovador’ ( troubadour) the early guitar singer-songwriters who performed popular songs about and for the people. Nueva Trova was part of a pan-Latin American song movement known as Nueva Cancíon, in which the lyrics reflect an attempt to escape commercial banality and address issues such as political justice, sexism, colonialism.
Now almost 60, Silvio has been performing his own tender songs of love, loss, regret, political commitment, doubt and determination with his guitar since his public debut in 1967. He had begun composing aged 13 while participating in the Literacy Campaign and continued through his military service. He is known for his eloquent, symbolic and questioning lyrics and many of his songs have become anthems across Latin America as well as in Cuba, such as ‘Cancíon urgente por Nicaragua’. He has said “I have always written according to my taste and my conscience”. When Silvio participated in an international protest song festival in 1968, his songs were broadcast on the radio and TV in Cuba.
Despite this success, he was always looking for new audiences away from the limelight – in universities, factories, schools, workplaces, fields, military units. He says he felt being on TV was an accident and the most important thing for him was to have direct contact with the public and that people find their own meaning in his songs. He aimed to minimise the gap between performer and audience. In 1968 he worked as crew on a fishing boat for 5 months during which time he wrote 72 songs, including the famous ‘Ojalá’ and ‘Playa Girón’. In 1970 Silvio joined the Experimental Sound Group based at ICAIC (Cuban Film Institute) just established under the direction of Leo Brouwer. This period was a hugely dynamic one for all the arts, as artists sought to express a uniquely Cuban modern creative identity after centuries of colonisation, an endeavour supported by the cultural institutions established by the revolutionary government.
Support of the Group by Haydée Santamaría at the Casa de las Americas and the National Council for Culture produced an intense cultural exchange between young composers and performers of progressive popular music across Latin America: Victor Jara from Chile, Isabel and Angel Parra from Peru and many others visited Cuba, to exchange ideas, learn each other’s indigenous songs and instruments, to create new songs with social content and using the electronic resources of the day.
Since then Silvio has composed for films as well as made 15 albums, many solo and some with the group Afrocuba. He has continued to evolve as an independent and uncompromising artist, reflecting the uncertainties in Cuba during the ‘90s in his lyrics. He is one of Cuba’s most influential intellectuals and was elected an MP in 2003.
His most recent album, ‘Cita con Angeles’ (‘Appointment with Angels’2003) is a poetic response to the Iraq war, while lamenting the early death of his heroes such as José Martí, Martin Luther King and John Lennon, incorporating their words and music. In April 2006 Silvio was presented by the Academy of Music Arts and Sciences in Spain with the Latin Lifetime Achievement Award for his 30 years work making songs that are “a symbol of social and political commitment and an example of poetic writing.” Silvio is currently working on a new album, Erase que se era (It was once what it was), uniting themes composed in the most prolific time of his life, the late 60’s. He is also preparing an anthology of songs by Noel Nicola, fellow Nueva Trova singer who died last year, and composing music for the animated feature film Meñique (Little finger), produced by ICAIC.
