MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban musician Francisco “Pancho” Céspedes has among his objectives for 2023 to conclude an album in which he collaborated with the troubadour Pablo Milanés, passed away last november at 79 years old.
As explained by Pancho Céspedes in a recent interview with the Mexican newspaper The reasonPablo Milanés recorded all his vocal participation.
“Now in Spain I am going to record my part and compose the instrumental of piano, bass, drums, strings that includes a cello and percussion. Phonogram where he vocalizes my songs and I his. It will be finished in the middle of this year”, he specified.
Regarding the recent death of Milanés, the composer, also a resident of Mexico, said that he had “got a deep impression”, “they were friends and confidants.”
Asked about what the author of songs like “Yolanda, Don’t ask me”, “To live”, “I will step on the streets again” and “The brief space in which you are not” means to him, Céspedes considered: “Pablo Milanés is Cuba’s greatest composer and vocalist in the last 60 years. It is enough to mention `My 22 years´, `Yolanda´, `You see´, `Glory days´, `I love this island´, `Happiness´, `Love me as I am´, `To live´ or `Years´ to confirm his exquisite creativity. He ventured into all genres of Cuban music: son, guaguancó, changüí, bolero, filin, guajira, danzón, traditional trova”.
“When I heard ‘Para vivir’ I realized how a song should be written,” he confessed.
Pancho Céspedes, banned in Cuba by the regime, performed for the last time on the island in 2018, precisely in one of the annual concerts offered by Pablo Milanés at the Karl Marx Theater.
Since then, the musician notes, “I have not returned to my country to sing. I am censored by the Government”.
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