{"id":83869,"date":"2017-01-04T10:26:52","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oncubamagazine.com\/?p=83869"},"modified":"2017-01-04T10:26:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:26:52","slug":"barbara-dane-cuba-is-my-spiritual-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/dance\/barbara-dane-cuba-is-my-spiritual-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Dane: \u201cCuba is my spiritual home\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 90 years old, with the same voice, U.S. singer Barbara Dane returned to the same stage where she made her debut in Cuba half a century ago: Casa de las Americas. The jazz, blues and folk legend spoke with the contemporary tone of her last album, Throw it Away<\/em>, the first of her production in 15 years.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by Cuban and U.S. musicians (Ruy L\u00f3pez-Nussa in percussion, Ruth Davies on the double bass and Tammy M. Hall at the piano), Dane shared the stage with Pablo Men\u00e9ndez, her son, and Osamu, her grandson. The evening revived the singer\u2019s first meeting with the Cuban public, at a time in which the 90 miles that separate the island from Key West had become so long that it seemed impossible to cross them.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>
Three generations of musicians who join the two nations: Barbara Dane, U.S.; her son Pablo Men\u00e9ndez, Cuban American; and her grandson Osamu Men\u00e9ndez, Cuban.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1966 the singer landed, alone, in the oneiric Havana of the time. Or almost alone: she was accompanied by the guitar and a camera.<\/p>\n

The tense atmosphere between the two countries had prevented for seven years any U.S. singer from stepping on Cuban soil. The nights of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra in Tropicana, el Trivol\u00ed or the Hotel Nacional were a thing of the past. But Dane broke the barriers, and her voice was heard together with that of Carlos Puebla, V\u00edctor Jara and Violeta Parra in the First Meeting of the Protest Song in 1967.<\/p>\n

If she had not dared, she would have placed at her feet the circuit of commercial music in the United States. According to an edition of Time<\/em> from then, Dane had a pure, rich, rare voice like a 20 karat diamond. That\u2019s what Lee Hildebrand, a jazz critic, also thought when describing her as \u201cthe best living singer of the classic blues of the 1920s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the obstacles imposed on the spread of her work, Barbara received the recognition of some contemporaries \u2013 like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger \u2013 who considered her a living icon. Dylan, recently awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, said in an open letter to the influential musical magazine Broadside<\/em> in 1964:<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean people like Tom Paxton, Barbara Dane, and Johnny Herald\u2026 they are the heroes if such a word has to be used here, they are the ones that lose materialistically. We need more kind of people like that, people that can\u2019t go against their conscience no matter what they might gain.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Barbara<\/a>
Barbara Dane with her son Pablo Men\u00e9ndez, director of the Mezcla group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What was price did you pay for following your conscience? we asked Barbara Dane at the end of the concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had problems with my career in the commercial sphere. I was eliminated from several important tours due to my political positions against racism, wars and relations with Cuba. However, I continued singing in favor of peace and justice throughout the world,\u201d she told us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to silence her, but they couldn\u2019t,\u201d affirms Pablo Men\u00e9ndez, also a musician and director of the Mezcla group, \u201cthat\u2019s why she is not as well-known in the United States as she should be. There are many artists who were inspired by her, but she is the authentic, the real one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did coming to Cuba at that time affect you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see it that way. Many of the invitations to go to other countries, and which allowed me to grow as an artist, came from the participation in that foundational meeting of the Protest Song in 1967.<\/p>\n

HER SON\u2019S VOICE<\/h3>\n
\"Pablo<\/a>
Pablo M\u00e9nendez sang solo \u201cStranger\u2019s blues.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pablo M\u00e9nendez, who has been living in Cuba for decades and heads the Mezcla group, founded a family on the island together with deceased actress Adria Santana. He came for the first time to accompany his mother. He liked it and stayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a hopeless optimist. Don\u2019t try to stop her being like this. Ever since she got to this country in 1966, alone, with her guitar. At the time many U.S. singers wanted to come, but they didn\u2019t dare because they were afraid. She didn\u2019t care about that, and for years continued travelling in that \u2018guerrilla\u2019 way. That rebelliousness forms part of her character since she was very young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1947, when she was barely 20 years old, she traveled to the First World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague. The experience changed her life, made her see the world in another way. There she met young people from all parts of the world who defended their cultures, their ideas. That motivated her to take a closer look of her personal history, the history of her family.\u201d<\/p>\n