The book very musical Beatriz Márquez, a trip down memory lane was published by Ediciones Cubanas de ARTEX, as a tribute to the popular performer, pianist and composer Beatriz Marquez Castro (1952), artistically known as “La Musicalísima”.
Written by the journalist Jaime Masó Torres, the text includes the most significant moments in the fruitful career of Beatriz Márquez, who has dedicated more than fifty years to music.
Dedicated to Felipe Morfa―researcher, radio broadcaster and tireless promoter of Beatriz’s work―, the book covers the beginnings of the artist, the marked influence of her father René Márquez, her studies at the National School of Art (ENA), the Escuela Cuban Modern Music, as well as its participation in important events inside and outside the island.
With an abundant photographic record, press clippings, concert programs and record covers, the volume brings the reader closer to the personal experiences of the popular interpreter, her work as a teacher, the history of some songs, her participation in the cinema, the theater and on numerous record compilations.
Divided into six chapters, the book brings together valuable testimonies from relatives, musicians, audiovisual producers and critics. Among the figures he cites are Esther Borja, María Teresa Linares, Aida Teseiro, Orlando Quiroga, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Jesús Ortega and Leo Brouwer.
Marta Valdés, Miguel Barnet, Marilyn Bobes, Gerardo Alfonso, Mike Porcell, Lisette Vila, Frank Padrón, Tony Pinelli, José Ramón Artigas, Rey Montesinos, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Rembert Egües, as well as Evelyn García and Michel Maza, children of ” The Most Musical”.
For the guitarist and conductor Leo Brouwer, winner of the 1998 National Music Award, Beatriz Márquez “is one of the most spectacular and special voices. A beautiful timbre of voice, a way of saying that it is not common”.
For her part, the famous composer Marta Valdés (National Music Award, 2007) affirms that “Beatriz Márquez’s singing has always been recognized, regardless of style, genre, author, backed by an instrumentalist as well as by a group of any format or on occasions when he has decided to offer the audience a live presentation accompanying himself on the piano”.
“Authentic, self-confident, she chose the most refined repertoire without concessions,” says the poet and writer Miguel Barnet, National Literature Award winner, 1994. And he adds: “Like the white butterfly of the streams, it grew spontaneously to fertilize its own style.” .
Beatriz Márquez is one of the great voices of Cuban music. She is an exponent of the romantic song, the filin and the bolero, in 2015 she was awarded the National Music Award together with the composer and conductor Guido López-Gavilán. The jury highlighted in the honorees the construction of a solid work and its capital importance for the musical art on the island.
With more than forty recorded albums, during his artistic career he has interpreted songs by renowned authors such as René Márquez, Adolfo Guzmán, Juan Almeida, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and Juan Formell, among others.
His voice became famous pieces such as “Spontaneously” (René Márquez), “Dialogue with a bird” (Mike Porcell), “Love, live” (Rembert Egües), “I wait for you in eternity” (Adolfo Guzmán) or ” Say goodbye to all my existence ”, of his authorship, among many others.
For all these reasons, Beatriz Márquez has been part of the soundtrack of several generations of Cubans from its beginnings in music to the present day.
