Very rarely does one wake up with good news for Cuban rock. Between the scarce promotion, the disinterest of the media and the little knowledge about the caliber of this scene, national rock, in spite of everything, tries to get rid of the rust of the years in the shade and continue with its own strategies. for survival, something that has been a mark of this aspect of the underground national.
The good news comes from the career of the versatile and talented guitarist and composer Ernesto Blanco, who has just recorded one of his songs with the extraordinary American keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Sherinian (California, August 25, 1966) needs no introduction among the troops of the most experienced rock fans. He has worked with iconic bands like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Black Country, among many others on a long list. But he is known, above all, for having belonged to the pioneers of progressive rock dreamtheater, where he militated for four long years and participated in more than 200 concerts. Many more credentials are not needed to talk about a musician who synthesizes a good part of the best rock that is cooked between the scenes of the planet and who has been very attentive to the creative wealth that is born with the interweaving of rock with jazz, and as much as he can, apart from the originality of the creation… In other words, Derek is what could be called, if they required any round qualification, as a complete musician “from head to toe”.
It was no wonder then that Ernesto Blanco was surprised when he received a positive response from Derek in his digital inbox. “I’m going to record with you, I liked the song you sent me. When do we start? Ernesto raised his hands to his head with the joy of a teenager and thanked Derek for having selected his song “Rebellion” after launching a call on his networks for musicians from around the world to send him their proposals for a future collaboration. Derek and Ernesto chatted, wrote messages in various ways and the collaboration was ready in less than an hour. The news still has Ernesto walking the halls of the moon. We talked and he only manages to briefly describe Derek’s well-known trajectory:
“Derek Sherinian is one of the musicians who has influenced me the most. He is one of the top 10 rock keyboardists of all time. He has collaborated with many rock bands of the highest level such as Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Dream Theater. I follow him on his networks; On his Instagram page, he launched a call to ask that a theme be sent to his email and if he liked it, he would respond and make a collaboration. I dared to send him a track of mine, an instrumental that he had written many years ago. To my luck I got the answer from him quickly. He told me that he liked the track and that he was going to record a solo. He moved me a lot because I didn’t think that after sending him my song it would amount to something”, Ernesto tells me.
With calm settled on the landscape of his first emotions, Ernesto details the collaboration process. “He asked me in which part he would like him to record alone, we were coordinating and in less than 20 minutes he sent me a solo in which his entire style of playing rested”.
The song that the Cuban sent Derek is called “Rebellion”. “I wrote it around the year 2002. At that time he was influenced precisely by a Derek album, which he released in 2001 under the name Inertia. I was very hooked by that album. Many works that he was composing during that time were influenced by him. ‘Rebellion’ was inspired by many passages from Inertia. When I make contact with him I don’t tell him about it but there are harmonic turns within the song that are intentional, that are influenced by him. When he heard it, he surely recognized some harmonic passages in his work and perhaps that was the vibe that prompted him to record the solo. Definitely, ‘Rebellion’ found its main influence”.
The collaboration will not be recorded for the moment on an album by Ernesto or Derek. The guitarist says that they will launch it, on a date yet to be determined, on both their social networks. He also says that it was not only a stroke of luck for him but also a recognition of Cuban rock. And he makes a brief review from his own point of view of some peak moments in the history of this genre on the Island in which Cuban musicians have participated. They have not been many but they have had the push of forcefulness and resolution. “It is very important for my career that Derek collaborated with me. We were sharing ideas, chatting a lot and he gave me several ideas to make the arrangements work better… But I didn’t have to do anything. His sound was impeccable. Impossible to imitate”.
Ernesto emphasizes “luck” although after several years of career he has proven his worthy and identifiable skills as a guitarist, both in his brother David’s band, in the creation of his own line-up, as well as in other projects with others. national musicians.
“It was a great luck for me and for Cuban rock. There are very few collaborations within national rock at this level. Few things have been done. My brother opened for The Dead Daisies in La Tropical; Carlos Varela collaborated with Jackson Browne; was made in Cuba Music Bridges. However, not much has happened when an international artist of Derek’s stature has recorded a collaboration on a song by a Cuban rock musician. This can open a door not only for me but also for national rock. And that, in the end, is the most important thing”.
