Cuban singer-songwriter Gerardo Alfonso presented this Tuesday in Havana his most recent record project, the slave routein homage to the 75th anniversary of Cuba’s entry into UNESCO and the International Day of Remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition.
The presentation of the project took place in a room of the National Museum of Fine Arts, in what the Efe agency describes as “an intimate meeting without concessions before the media and experts”. The initiative is sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Havana.
In his 17th work, the singer-songwriter covers a multitude of genres in 15 songs; from rumba and guaguancó to choral songs from Arará matrix, going through afro, funk, reggae and songo.
“It is an album of entertainment and reflection that covers, from the musical point of view, many edges of Afro-descendant origin, although it is not a folk album,” explained the renowned artist in an interview with the blog Havana in the key of Sol.
The author of the iconic song “Sábanas Blancas” said that in this project devised more than a decade ago, he brought together themes that “seemed recurrent to ethnography, raciality and other aspects…”, including some that he had composed in the 1980s and at other times. The musical production, from the Cuban label Egrem, and the arrangements of the songs were in the hands of one of the most important Cuban musicians, maestro Joaquín Betancourt.
?As part of the celebration of the 7️⃣5️⃣ Anniversary of the entry of Cuba ?? to the #UNESCOtomorrow, August 30, will take place in the Sala Teatro del @bellasartescubaa concert by troubadour Gerardo Alfonso, in which he will present his new CD “La Ruta del Esclavo” ??
#75YearsCubaUNESCO pic.twitter.com/z04wbBUBBF— CNCU?? (@CNCubaUNESCO) August 29, 2022
Alfonso also had the participation of guest artists, such as the director of the group Mix, Pablo Menéndez, who contributed the sound of electric guitars to fourteen of the songs, Daysi Bravo and his group Obba Aré Anlé, and saxophonist Janio Abreu, among others.
“La ruta delslavo” is not the first eclectic album by this self-taught troubadour and composer, whose antecedent is the CD Race.
Alfonso (1958), a member of the Cuban Nueva Trova Movement since 1980, has been influenced by Cuban singer-songwriters such as Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, and the Brazilians Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento.
He is the creator of the guayason rhythm, with melodic elements of peasant and Afro-Cuban music, which he calls “son de la guayaba”.
With more than 30 years of artistic career, he has accumulated numerous nominations and national awards in the record sector, has composed the soundtracks for local television programs and the island’s cinema, and has worked with Cuban and Italian symphony orchestras.
Efe/OnCuba.
