Pablo Milanés: Cubans say goodbye to one of their greatest musicians

The renowned Cuban troubadour Pablo Milanés died at the age of 79 in Madrid, Spain, after being hospitalized for several days due to infections resulting from the oncohematological disease he had been suffering from for the past several years.

The singer of classic songs of the Antillean pentagram such as “Yolanda” or “Los días de Gloria” had several ailments, among them a kidney disorder for which he received a kidney transplant some time ago.

The relapse and the fragile health of the singer-songwriter forced his producers to cancel the concerts he had planned in Pamplona, Mexico City, and Santo Domingo. His last concert in Havana was on June 21 at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum, in the midst of an intense police operation that threatened to suspend it because Pablo was considered an opponent of the government of the island.

Milanés studied composition, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration under prominent teachers. Along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola, he was a pioneer and founder of what would later be known as the Nueva Trova Cubana.

In his artistic career, in addition to being a singer-songwriter, he was a TV show host and music producer. He previously formed part of the group's Cuarteto del Rey and Los Bucaneros, and also worked as a soloist.

PABLO: HIS LIFE AND CAREER

Pablo Milanés was born in Bayamo, in the former Oriente province, on February 24, 1943. He started his musical career as a singer on the local radio at the age of six.

Soon after, his family resettled in Havana, which allowed the young man to relate to the sound environment of the capital in the heyday of filin and traditional music. However, he was also influenced by American and Brazilian rhythms and classical composers.

In 1956 he participated in the television program "Estrellas nacientes" (Rising Stars), which made him well known. In the following decade—marked by the triumph of the Revolution in 1959—he worked in vocal groups such as Los Armónicos and the Sensación group and frequented nightclubs such as El Gato Tuerto and Saint John.

"Tú, mi desengaño", composed in 1963, was his first song, followed by "Mis veintidós años" (1965), where the most characteristic features of his work and the link of his melodies with the poetic language of the lyrics can already be recognized. That decade is also marked by his political commitment to Castro, which did not prevent him from being sent—along with other artists, intellectuals, religious and homosexuals considered "undesirable"—to a Military Production Support Unit (Umap).

From 1969 onwards, he collaborated with the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, whose work—under the direction of Leo Brower—defined the musical band of the cinema of the time and, in a certain way, of Castro's own Revolution.

Milanés worked in the group together with the most relevant musicians and critics of the time, such as Noel Nicola, Sergio Vitier, Eduardo Ramos, and Leonardo Acosta, as well as Silvio Rodríguez, Sara González and Amaury Pérez. 

This is the time when "Yolanda" and other famous songs such as "Quien me tienda la mano al pasar," "Los caminos," and the album "Versos sencillos" (1975)—a musicalization of José Martí's poems—were born. By that time the Grupo de Experimentación had already disbanded and its members began their solo careers.

He performed in Europe and countries of the former Soviet bloc, as well as in Spain, Mexico, and other Latin American nations. He released "Querido Pablo" (1985), an album in which singer-songwriters such as Mercedes Sosa and Chico Buarque collaborate.

In a decade of political tension and on the verge of the fall of the Soviet Union, he released the television program "Proposiciones" (1987) and organized the famous tour "Amo esta Isla," whose last concert foreshadows the Special Period. In the following years, he published the albums "Identidad," "Canto de abuela," "Orígenes," and "Despertar."

Milanés was considered one of the most important Latin American artists and carried out numerous projects around the world. His death occurred after several promotions of his album "Días de luz." 

The artist spoke out against the Cuban regime’s repression of the July 11, 2021 demonstrations. "I believe in young people, who with the help of all Cubans, must be and will be the engine of change," he said then. In addition, he described as "irresponsible and absurd" the Cuban government's use of repression against the people, "who have sacrificed and given everything for decades to sustain a regime that in the end what it does is imprison them."

Milanés was also one of the artists who endorsed the Civic March for Change on November 15, 2021. "It is beautiful that we coincide in showing our claim for absolute freedoms through flowers," he wrote in a message of support for the protests.

His last concert in Havana, in June 2022, was held under a heavy police operation and his presentation was marked by the emotion of an audience that had not heard live for several years the author of songs such as "Años," "El pecado original," "La soledad," "Nostalgias," and "Días de gloria."