Neither awards nor big concerts can match the humility of this Panamanian who emigrated to New York (from where he attends to us via video conference) to become the voice of salsa. At 74 years old, Rubén Blades talks about his career as if it were not with him, remembering a thousand times the luck he has had in life. With one more Grammy in his pocket (and eleven to go), Pedro Navaja’s father is preparing to return this Thursday to Cruïlla in Barcelona.
He repeats at Cruïlla, where last year he played in front of more than 20,000 people.
I have loved Barcelona since the first time we were there. It was the first place where attention was paid to the lyrics of my songs. The boys from La teria did me the great favor of recording Pedro Navaja, and with that they made me known there, because they didn’t know me. Apart from that, in cultural terms the weight of Barcelona, ??that of the creators who come from there, has always been at the forefront of the world. Barcelona has always been a place of experimentation, where ideas arise and develop. So whenever I can go back, well I go back, although I’m surprised that one doesn’t usually come back that quickly.
The band gives him strength to continue.
This orchestra is the only one I know that has the ability to perform songs in different formats. Suddenly we play a sextet, suddenly we go to an ensemble, an orchestra, a big band. And you will say: well, this is a salsa band; Yes, it’s a band with an Afro-Cuban sound, but the songs they play, the lyrics, the direction are jazz, pop, salsa, everything.
It tells stories with a social charge.
These are songs that seek communication, a solidarity connection that is vital in these times and in which politics is not sponsoring or helping. It then corresponds to the music, and if I have someone in an audience who is right-wing, and suddenly I have another one who is left-wing, and these two do not speak to each other, they do not have a place. But suddenly in Amor y control they do find it, then the political aspect goes away and we enter the human aspect. And there is contact that is vital if we are to survive as a society. That’s why as long as I have the voice, I continue to sing.
The music of the new generations deals with more hedonistic themes, without so much contestation.
It is so, and it is partly a consequence of the disillusionment that politics and bad public administration have caused in our society, and especially in our young society. The examples of politicians are horrific and what they do is stimulate the escape. What these guys want now is the female, the hammock. They are disenchanted with what surrounds them and what they do is escape through music. I think it is a process, and I do not criticize or censure; simply, if I don’t like something, I don’t listen to it. Each generation will create its own response and you have to be careful, especially old people like me, because we don’t become the censors now, and say that the only thing that works is what works for us.
He has recently released Paseiros, an album of Brazilian music.
I was left with the desire to make an album with a Brazilian group in harmonies. I was disenchanted with the vocal groups I heard, until I heard Boca Livre, an extraordinary group. And one day I met them in New York. They didn’t know me. I went there very excited, they thought I was crazy, but we recorded the album.
And he won the Grammy.
I thought Cristina Aguilera would win it, and I felt bad because she sang Camaleón to me at the Person of the Year [2021] gala, and suddenly she makes an album in Spanish and another one wins.
What is your secret for cats to stay brown and not have white hair?
It’s the stories, the stories don’t change. There are several things that I consider to be wrong assessments: for example, that the artist owes to his audience. No, the artist owes himself. If it were for the public, Picasso would not have done what he did, nor Dalí or Miró. Artists will follow their inner sense.
An opinion of many people.
We, Latin America, and Spain and Catalonia, are societies of stories, storytellers, we are storytellers, all time is a story, it’s the meeting, the coffee: “listen to me, did you see what happened to so-and-so?” , that is, it is the story, the tale. Music can reflect this, the realities that are repeated generationally, and this is what has made the unusual happen. I just came from Chile and Argentina, both shows were full and there were young people; because they can understand what Amor y control is, suddenly they know what El cantante, Siembra, what is Plástico, or El padre Antonio.
What does a New Yorker think about what is done with immigrants in the US?
I just wrote a song that goes on the new album that is coming called Inmigrantes. In the USA for many years it has been believed that we, all of us in Latin America, want to come here and that is not true. Most of us are here because we had to come. I came for the dictatorship. I didn’t come to be a musician or a lawyer. I ended up here because the CIA was supporting Noriega. That’s why when a gringo tells me that if I criticize, then it’s clear that I have the right to criticize, because it’s his fault that I’m here. And I can’t say anything about it because I have to be super grateful. Well, no, I’m paying for my stay here, they don’t give me a damn here, so, of course, nobody leaves their homeland because they want to.
