At the beginning of this year, I told you about Silvio Rodríguez (you can read the post here), one of the most important Cuban musicians of the world in the last times and that I had the pleasure to know since his beginnings. He was one of the initiators of the Cuban Movement Nueva Trova, an important movement that emerged between the late sixties and early seventies. Besides his name, there was another one with the same meaning and historical weight: Pablo Milanés.

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_{Silvio, Noél and Pablo {Quelle}

There was a third singer and songwriter who completed the trilogy of the founders of this movement, the third was Noel Nicola. Each one with his style, each with his own prose and each with his sound, but together they have given life to a project that has shaped music history.

Pablo's musical background and musical beginnings were close to the traditional roots of Cuban music and a musical movement that emerged in the 1940s and became known as Feeling. This was a kind of fusion of tradition that had established the bolero, with all its romantic baggage, and the modern concepts of harmony imposed by jazz. Perhaps for the same reason, the poetic repertoire of Pablo Milanés is much closer to the romanticist than that of other fellow musicians, who have also sung emphatically to love, as this is undoubtedly one of the themes that stand out in the poetry of Nueva Trova. With Pablo, however, it takes on a deeper dimension and is one of his central themes in his compositions during his more than 50-year career.

Although with a critical position, he is a constant defender of the Cuban Revolution, to whom he has dedicated a large part of his repertoire.

Musically, he is much more open to versions or covers and honors to other authors and traditional repertoires.

_{Pablo, Mercedes Sosa and Marcelo Krass [Source]}

With a simple and direct poetry as well as easily digestible melodic lines, the Cuban singer-songwriter's repertoire succeeded in attracting followers around the world, and managed to keep up to date for about five decades.

His performances include the most important theaters in the world, and he sang with the most outstanding personalities in the music world. These include collaborations with people like Silvio Rodríguez, Ana Belén, Carlos Varela, Fito Páez, Joan Manuel Serrat, Joaquin Sabina, Lilia Vera, Maná, Ricardo Arjona, Los Van Van and Víctor Manuel among others.

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Pablo became part of the sounds that accompanied my whole life. However, I can not remember exactly in which year I met him. Like Silvio I remember him in Berlin and in Moscow, and later we have seen each other countless times in Venezuela and Mexico.

By the way, now that I mention Mexico, I have an anecdote that has shaped my life.

In 1978, I visited my sister Hely, a singer with a remarkable career, about which I wrote in my post Hely Orsini, a story, an album, a song. During these years she lived in Mexico and made her musical career there.

On the days I spent at her home, she invited me to an event where she would sing, the festival of the new Latin American song that had a number of exceptional guests that were of international prestige, like the case of Pablo and many more. As I was invited by her, I had access to the backstage of the event, where I welcomed and met some of the stars of this musical movement.

Suddenly she comes to me and says, "Look, there is someone there who wants to greet you." I go with her and we go to a dressing room. Then I see a dark man getting up and excited to hug me and say hello, "Yes, brother, it's nice to see you! I was totally out of place and did not know what to do because I did not know who it was.

He notices my expression and says, "Boy, don't you remember me? I'm Pablo Milanés!" And he laughed.

For what reason my memory failed, I do not know, but this scene shamed me so much that from then on I developed an impressive memory for faces and names. Because the fact that an artist of the size of Pablo's greets you by your name, and you do not know who he is, is something that marks your life.

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Songs like "Yolanda", "Yo pisaré las calles nuevamente" (I'll step back into the street), "El breve espacio en que no estás" (The short room where you are not), "Para vivir" (To live), "De que callada manera" (What a quiet way), "La vida no vale nada" (life is worth nothing) became part of the soundtrack of my life and many other people on this planet. That's why I can say that Pablo Milanés is part of #MyMusic too.