I noticed a lot of nostalgia and emotion in Francisco Cespedes’ face while he speaks about his performance next September 27, at the Karl Marx Theater, as part of the Sixth Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival.
Cespedes, who was shocked by the impact of his work in the Cuban audience, entitled his performance in Havana Donde está la vida. During the concert, he will make a tour though his career and will have Pablo Milanes as special guest. He will perform in the company of his musicians, who were also born in Cuba; though he pointed out his guitarist is Argentinean but can play the Cuban notesvery well.
“It has been 24 years. Actually, I didn’t have a career in Cuba before, but I may have it now, by the side of Leo Brouwer and at the Karl Marx Theater, and after some difficulties we had to face in order to perform here, all I can say is that I’m one of the luckiest men on Earth. I guess today the only men happier than me are those who have children or recently had them. Those are happier than me”, noted Cespedes as he blushed, while I took a look at his figure, he looks thinner than in those videos spread among Cubans.
The artist is eager to meet with that “new audience that also discovered him, while he was developing his career abroad with the album Vida loca. This audience since little –now they are teenagers and adults– is going to be there with me and has always showed their fondness for my music. It is wonderful when you feel like singing and the people feel like listening to you”.
In the same way he answered the questions by Cuban journalists, I talked to him about Vida loca, a very popular album here. “Here and there”, he said.
“It was indeed popular, despite the fact that it was not promoted by our labels”, I pointed out. Cespedes, with a smile on his face and in view of my obvious comment only noted: “It was really good”.
Do you have any references of the opinions of your fans here, even though you have not performed in a Cuban stage for so many years?
I will answer with an anecdote: Juan Formell once told me over the phone: ‘Pancho, you have to come and champion this album, because as people know we are friends, they only ask me: Hey, what about Pancho? When did he leave? When did he record this or that song? You have to come and explain that to them’. It was Formell who told me this album was a big hit here. He told me what was going on in Cuba with my songs, and from then on I tried to come and explain it.
Does it bother you other artists sing your songs? I’m thinking on Mexican Luis Miguel with the hit Pensar en ti.
Does it bother me? Not at all, it is a blessing that someone I chose defends and sings my songs with love. It brings me joy that someone wants to sing one of the tracks I made some time ago, which are no longer my own –because as others show their interest on them, they are no longer mine–.I feel flattered and privileged because of that.
The author of Señora and Todo es un misterio confesses that while he sleeps his keeps a guitar, some paper and a pen at hand. He keeps close all the necessary elements for a composer to do his job. “I divorced 12 years ago, which doesn’t mean I have not been visited by some dragonflies some nights in these 58 years old of mine. I sleep and by my side is my guitar, some paper and a pen.
“I’m always writing and making new songs, some of them go to the trash lately, fortunately or unfortunately, I cannot say. One gets afraid and prejudiced of words sometimes thinking they are not the right ones. Sometimes words have to be flattered, as for instance in that song by Pablo Milanes by the title of Dicen. He told me: “This song is wonderful because you say ‘I love you’ and the verb is very much used, but sometimes it needs some fresh elements”.
You recorded nine albums after Vida loca, will you combine all your music in that big concert at the Karl Marx?
Yes, though it is hard. We are preparing the repertoire for the concert with Juan Pin Vilar, who is the person I appointed as my representative in Cuba. Sometimes it gets really hard and we say: ‘Well, we already took it out, so lets not include it again. In my career I have recorded ten albums and some tracks have been popular, and there are other songs I want to sing here in Cuba’. I have to sing to Bola de Nieve here. It’s something religious.
Leo Brouwer’s Festival opened up a door for you in Cuba.
The door. All doors and windows.
Does that mean you will perform more often in the island, some recordings perhaps?
I have been waiting for this moment my whole life. I already said once that with Pablo Milanes we cheated. He allowed me to make a recital in one of his concerts and he only sang two songs. And I thought: ‘It’s going to be now’. I will put it like this, in black and white, I love singing and if it is going to be in Cuba, where I have longed for performing, I’d have to have what it takes and the intelligence to hold on and to avoid people from getting tired of me. With my desires for performing in Cuba for the 24 years I haven’t been able to do it, people will probably get tired of me.
Even with some commitments during the first weeks of September, Pancho Cespedes announced he will return to Havana prior to his performance at the Karl Marx Theater. “Right now I’m on a tour and Leo (Brouwer) had told me about the conference of the festival. I’ll leave but I will return probably on September 20. I have already told my office to block me from that date on so I can start relaxing because I’m really nervous with this news. It is an opportunity to make art in Cuba”.
