Chico Buarque (L) Pablo and Milton Nascimiento (R). Photo taken from Prensa Latina
Brasilia, November 22 (RHC)-- The news of the death of composer and performer Pablo Milanés resounds this Tuesday with special sadness in the universe of Brazilian Popular Music (MPB), reports the information datelined in Brasilia.
The blog of journalist Mauro Ferreira indicates that Milanés, who died at the age of 79 in Madrid (Spain), left strong ties with the MPB due to ideological and musical affinities with Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento. The most important one was through the song Yolanda.
He recalls that, composed by the Cuban singer-songwriter in 1970 "in praise of his then-wife Yolanda Benet, who had just given birth to the couple's daughter, Yolanda - one of the most beautiful and passionate love songs - won a Portuguese version, written by Chico Buarque and recorded by Simone in 1984 in the album Desejos in duet with Chico himself".
It is worth noting that in the 1981 album Amar, Simone had already recorded Yo no te pido, a song released by Milanés in 1977.
Ferreira points out that the idea of the version was prompted when Buarque sang Yolanda with Milanés in a concert presented by the Cuban in November 1983 at the extinct Canecão show house, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
The show was captured to give rise to the album Pablo Milanés Live in Brazil, released in 1984 with the participation of the Brazilian artist in the songs Yolanda, Pedazo de mí (Chico Buarque, 1978) and Homenaje (Pablo Milanés, 1983).
However, the connection of Pablo Milanés with Chico and Milton Nascimento occurred before, in the 1970s, the heyday of MPB, a genre that confronted the Brazilian military regime established in 1964.
According to the communicator, having been one of the most influential members of the Nueva Trova, a musical movement that brought together artists committed to social justice in Cuba, "Pablo Milanés ended up strengthening ties with Chico and Milton, both involved in the Brazilian struggle against the dictatorship of 1964".
Not by chance, refers the critic, "Milton recorded Canción por la Unidad Latinoamericana (Pablo Milanés, 1976) in the album Clube da Esquina 2 (1978) and invited Chico to participate in the bilingual recording that begins in Spanish and ends in the then unpublished Portuguese version of the song, written by Chico".
Buarque also made the Portuguese version of the music De que callada manera (Nicolás Guillén and Pablo Milanés, 1975), entitled Como si fuera la primavera and presented by the Carioca in the album Chico Buarque, released in 1984.
"Pablo Milanés' ties with Brazilian music are indestructible and will be renewed whenever a Latin American invokes the musical/social credo that the Cuban artist taught or simply makes a declaration of love, romantic, without looking for the right form", emphasizes Ferreira.
