In the international context, Havana has also been the inspiration of important musicians, with extraordinary artistic pieces. It is worth remembering one of the oldest and most internationally recognized songs in the last 150 years, composed of a Spanish after a brief settle in the Cuban capital. It is "La Paloma".
Composed and written in 1863 by Sebastián Iradier (1809-1865) it is among the most popular that has been written to Havana. In a century and a half it has been reproduced and interpreted in the most diverse cultures, settings, arrangements and recordings, and in the most diverse genres including opera, pop, jazz, rock, military bands and folk music. It is claimed that it surpasses "Yesterday," by The Beatles, in the Guinness Book of Records, as the most recorded song, with about five thousand recordings. To her corresponds another Guinness record for having been sung by the largest choir in the world, of 88,600 people, in Hamburg, on May 9, 2004.
"La paloma" has been performed, among many others, by Joan Baez, Maria Callas, Bing Crosby, Julio Iglesias, James Last, Dean Martin, Mireille Mathieu, Nana Mouskouri, Charlie Parker, Luciano Pavarotti, Pérez Prado & his orchestra, Elvis Presley, Caterina Valente, Billy Vaughn and Harry Belafonte. This version, in the voice of the Spanish Paloma San Basilio, is one of the most beautiful: Rodolfo Páez, better known as Fito Páez is an Argentinian musician and film director, member of the trova rosarina, and one of the most important exponents of Argentine rock. In addition to his successful career as a musician, he has ventured as a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist.
Fito, who has visited our city several occasions to offer his creations, consecrated the theme "Havana", in which he says: Havana at your feet, / I wouldn't know how to love you otherwise ... / Havana at your feet, pass the time and your memory is not erased ... / Havana your skin, gave so much love and so many things ... / Havana standing, I just want to shipwreck at your shores ... Havana why, your strange perfume fascinates me ... Havana why, among the tango , the son and the mambo devour me… ”
The American saxophonist, Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (Seattle, 1956), better known by his stage name, Kenny G, is a prominent instrumentalist who became very popular between 1980 and 1990; deserving, in addition, of a Grammy award.
Kenny G also found a place in his studio albums to treasure “Havana”, “an unforgettable melody, sweet, melancholic, suggestive, reminiscent of the markets, the bay, the squares, the children, the pigeons, the lovers on the boardwalk , the family and the lonely sunsets on the cusp of Morro ».Considered one of the most successful artists in Latin America, Ricardo Arjona is a Guatemalan composer, arranger, singer and music producer whose music flies between ballad, Latin pop, rock, and even Cuban music.
Known for his lyrical style, Arjona frequently addresses love and social issues, such as racism, transsexuality, emigration, religion and relations between the north and the south.
In his theme "Bridge" in the first part he tries to describe the city: Havana, always the halves, / so half Spanish, so half African ... / They know well the waves that in each window there is always a witness ... / Havana, they swear They know they don't know anything, to understand your thing ... / Havana ... / So close and so far.
In some verses of the song it seems that Arjona is allowed to flood the anti-Cuban propaganda, and does not understand the voluntary decision of the Cubans to defend their self-determination, as well as the aggressiveness of the American governments and the Cuban-American mafia against the Island, and that it is precisely the unjust blockade one of the main causes of the economic situation that the Cuban people is going through.
Elsewhere, he tries to give another look to Cuba-United States relations and assures that ... / neither the blockade is the remedy nor hold on to the measure, / when pride rules always misfortune reigns ... / bridge ... / maybe if there was a bridge it would be something different ...
Roy Brown is a fervent Puerto Rican singer-songwriter and guitarist defending his country's independence, and a member of the Nueva Trova movement of that Caribbean nation. His most recent record project, Habanandando, is a tribute to Havana in its fifth centenary,
From Habanandando we chose the song "Havana is a woman", performed by Zoraida Santiago: It is unlikely that other cities have been as acclaimed and sung as Havana. The undeniably true is the mystery that surrounds it to awaken so many emotions translated into poems and songs. Neither New York, London, Paris, Rome or Venice, cities that have inspired poets and composers, have as many songs as she does. No one has been indifferent to its beauty, and that is that Havana is a city of longing, of encounters and melancholy.
