I wish I could say who Luis Carbonell was\u2026 but not even him could. One day, one unique early morning, at the airport, he confessed to me: \u201cI don\u2019t know Luis Carbonell, I learn from him, he surprises me, I am still discovering him\u201d.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t aim to repeat the biography of this man born on July 26, 1923, in the streets of the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. I was moved \u2013I\u2019m even more moved\u2013 by his statement: \u201cI came from Santiago first, but then I was Cuban\u201d. Before being consciously aware of the homeland, we are consciously aware of our little ground under the sun.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a jump, the first one of many. After his home time was severely hit by a hurricane in October, 2012, he premiered a scene by actor and director Santiago Carnago. Help was needed in all sorts of ways. He was willing to pick up stones if necessary and so he told the highest authorities in the territory. That was about the size of his humbleness.<\/p>\n
If I could choose a sample of stock I would take one of the anthological events in the national discography. Back in 1955, with the recording of Esther canta a dos, tres y cuatro voces, nothing was said about multitracks, and especially not about digitalization. It was a tribute to his friendship with Esther Borja. It demanded strict discipline and pinpoint accuracy. He had both, as well as her.<\/p>\n
He undertook musical arrangements for that project, the assembling of voices, the piano (along with Numidia Vaillant) and the drafting of notes. A complete artist. Years after he took part in the formation of Cuarteto del Rey \u2015where Pablo Milanes debuted\u2013\u2013; Los Bucaneros and Los Ca\u00f1as. Many bands went to him for consultancy during the following decades.<\/p>\n
Luis was born for teaching, though not for teaching law nor medicine as his mother would have wanted. He not only succeeded in this field, but was also able to send away a mountain of prejudices.<\/p>\n
How did he manage to learn the extensive Elegia a Jesus Menendez by Nicolas Guillen? How to follow the Captain of Death? How to say Jesus \/ sugar cane \/ Manzanillo \/ army? I also asked him. \u201cStudying\u201d was never his only response. He must have noticed something in my face, some shadow, when he added: \u201cIt\u2019s actually three things: study, study and study\u201d.<\/p>\n
He lived from poetry, something almost no one has ever done. But better than that he made us live with it. He took the most of every phrase and took every word to the limit. He undressed the poem from the outside in and then dressed it layer by layer as if he had never touched it.<\/p>\n
Argentinean artist Pepe Biondi one day confessed: \u201cYou don\u2019t recite poems, you draw verses, and you paint them. You are the watercolorist of Cuban poetry\u201d.That name, along with the taste of the Caribbean, always accompanied him through the Caribbean, South America, the United States and Europe.
\nHe shaped Lorca and Cam\u00edn, Pal\u00e9s Matos and Eloy Blanco, Tallet and Ballagas. He made great poems and great authors, but he also gave heart to pieces that didn\u2019t seem too much and made them succeed.<\/p>\n
He insisted in saying he didn\u2019t write poetry, he tried to prove it, but we all know he could play with words to the extent of taking us were he wanted and then\u2026 he would pull us off.<\/p>\n
Just watch him drawing in the air, watch his voice make the miracle: Fulooooo. Look at that young boy wearing gloves and all, cheche, applauding, yelling, and saying his name, just as the Valdes boy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wish I could say who Luis Carbonell was\u2026 but not even him could. One day, one unique early morning, at the airport, he confessed to me: \u201cI don\u2019t know Luis Carbonell, I learn from him, he surprises me, I am still discovering him\u201d. I don\u2019t aim to repeat the biography of this man born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3115,"featured_media":31435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13930],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33752,7957],"class_list":["post-31602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technologies-of-communication-and-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n