National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

SOLEDAD BRAVO and Pablo Milanés are synonymous. Ever since the famed Venezuelan singer was introduced to the musical works of Milanés in 1972, she has been enraptured, and for the last 29 years she has been touring the world with many Milanés' gems included in her set lists. The partnership began with a trip to Cuba (with the help of Haydée Santamaría - founder and manager of la Casa de las Américas), where SOLEDAD met the young and passionate Cuban troubadours: Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez. Strong bonds of friendship were established and in 1973, SOLEDAD recorded an album entitled "Cantos de la Nueva Trova Cubana", as a tribute to her new friends and to this new-born Cuban movement that started to kindle a fire through South America. In 1976, SOLEDAD recorded a sequel to her first "cuban" record. The new album (played and arranged in Madrid by the great spanish pianist Ricardo Miralles) have been released by CBS International and offered new Milanés and Rodríguez material. The album was a major hit thru' Europe and South America. The artistic complicity between Pablo and SOLEDAD grew stronger with the years. Recently, the two decided to join in Caracas and Havana to record three duets : "Yolanda", "El breve espacio en que no estás" and "De qué callada manera". Thrilled by the result, Antonio Sánchez decided to gather together - in one CD - all of Milanés' material that Soledad had performed thru her career. And here it is "Trova de Amor" the first anthology of Pablo Milanés greatest songs with the extraordinary voice of his most talented interpreter. In terms of emotion, prowess and expressive intensity, there is no equal to the voice of the Venezuelan singing prodigy SOLEDAD BRAVO. She's one of the few Latin major artists who really matter. Listen to her astounding voice: the lady will give you chills ! A monument ! PABLO MILANÉS The legendary PABLO MILANÉS is undisputedly one of Cuba's top composers. He is also one of the most prodigiously talented singer-songwriters in the history of Latin music. He was born in Bayamo, Cuba on the 24th of Feb 1943. His career began in groups like Cuarteto del Rey and Los Bucaneros after which worked as a soloist. Today, he's an internationally acclaimed troubadour whose brilliant and extensive body of work can easily be compared to those of John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen. During the 60's and 70's, MILANÉS helped nurture the dual musical movements: "Nueva Trova" in Cuba and "Nueva Cancion" throughout the Southern Hemisphere of the Americas. Both were folk-based genres, dependent on guitars and light percussion, with rich, romantic lyrics about love and heroism, solidarity and revolt. In 1968, he joined the Canción Protesta de la Casa de las Américas. Some of his first songs were related to the Cuban music movement known as "Feeling", and he is also known for his "son". Together with countryman Silvio Rodríguez, the singer expanded the lexicon of Latin pop, employing metaphors and symbolism with joyful abandon and creating a harmonious marriage of poignant lyrics and a melange of musical styles. MILANÉS own palette has always been broader than most, exploring variations of the Cuban son, experimenting with the ballad-based filin style and making occasional excursions into jazz. But he is, more than anything, a personification of the Cuban revolution, with all its beauty, horror and contradiction. Author of hundreds of songs, PABLO MILANÉS has written the scores for seven feature films (including "Oggun" directed by Gloria Rolando) and 30 documentaries, recorded 37 albums that have sold millions worldwide, and given thousands of concerts in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has toured the world singing to hundreds of thousands of fans (last summer, there were more than 50,000 in attendance at one concert in Mexico City). The man is not only an ambassador of Cuban music all over the world, he is also a fighter for his disadvantaged fellow citizens. His apologia for homosexuality, "El Pecado Original," for example - that followed the Oscar-nominated Cuban film "Strawberry and Chocolate" - made it possible to talk publicly about being gay in Cuba. This subject had certainly been closed before to MILANÉS, a former inmate in the notorious labor camps in the mid-'60's which were set up to "re-educate" gays and other "social deviants". PABLO is also member of GES (Grupo de Experimentacion Sonora). He formed a foundation, FUNDACION MILANÉS, but the government terminated it, perhaps over the usual nervousness around independent black initiatives. As an interpreter, his voice is a versatile tenor with a rare tenderness and a seemingly effortless way with a song. MILANÉS has always been vocally seductive, possibly the best male singer to come out of Cuba during revolutionary years.

— CalabashMusic.com