Within days of receiving the 2013 National Music Award, the nonagenarian singer Adriano Rodriguez confesses to OnCuba he is a privileged man for all the experiences he has lived through many years.
More than seven decades of career have placed him shoulder to shoulder with the greats of Cuban music and culture in general, he fondly remembers when he illustrated with songs the conferences by Don Fernando Ortiz, the drinks with the King of Rhythm Benny Moré, and duets with Mercedita Valdés, Carlos Embale, Dominica Verges, Guarionex Garay and Celia Cruz.
Adriano gives thanks to life, and with the simplicity that characterizes him he received the news of this important distinction: “This award fills me with happiness, I am already 90 but it’s not too late to receive an award like this, so I welcome it”.
The possibility to converse with him, translates into know firsthand the important moments of Cuban music, and as time passes, in his view, has greatly enriched.
“I love music since I was born, when I was 5 or 6 years old I started singing, it was something that came from my soul and perhaps that was what helped me interpret many genres whether I had the condition.”
“I enjoyed listening and singing all in Cuban music, in addition to the training I received throughout my life, I could do many of the things I did because of the huge memory with which I was gifted, that allowed me to learn very quickly the works, even by ear”
– How did you manage to sing so much?
I was part of groups of different types and thanks to my work with very important culture figures I appreciated the ease with which I moved my voice in different registers, depending on what they were singing, so I was called often to take the most dissimilar projects, from to the folkloric zarzuela, through the trova and son.
I never made distinctions between my solo works, second voice chorus or in any that I felt good and that taught me a lot.
– Some favorite genre?
All of them but I confess that my passion is romantic music. But there are specific songs of other rhythms that I enjoyed such as the bolero Para que recordar, that I heard it for the first time by the Colombian baritone Carlos Julio Ramirez, Begin the Beguine, by American Cole Porter, and the proclamation Rica pulpa, by Eliseo Grenet
– Debts?
I wish I had recorded Pregn de las Flores by Ernesto Lecuona, with Celia Cruz, because we sang it once for a TV show but never recorded. I liked this duo.
You always want to do more, but I’m proud of what I achieved, I never believed myself as the best at anything, on the contrary, always try to improve as a singer.
Enjoy the music of this author in the following videos:
El muerto, Adriano Rodríguez in “Collection 100 Cuban Sons”…
