Silvio and Pablo, iconic figures of the Cuban Nueva Trova.
Photo taken from Youtube

Havana, November 22 (RHC)-- Cuban poet and troubadour Silvio Rodríguez paid tribute Tuesday to the late, great singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés, with the publication of an unpublished song he dedicated to the composer in 1969.

"I met you tearing the chest of death one day; you didn't know anything and it was you who carried her by the hand", reads the first verse of "Pablo", a song published on Rodriguez's personal blog.

Both musicians, along with Noel Nicola (1946-2005) were pioneers and founders of what became known as the Nueva Trova Cubana.

Pablo Milanés, born in the eastern city of Bayamo on February 24, 1943, was hospitalized in Madrid, Spain, where he was being treated for an oncohematological disease he suffered from for several years.   He died late Monday night (local time in Havana) / early Tuesday morning (local time in Madrid).   

Considered one of the essential exponents of the New Song Movement, Pablo Milanés compiled a significant work for Cubans and Latin Americans with a repertoire of more than 400 pieces.

Winner of two Latin Grammys (2006) and a statuette for Musical Excellence (2015), he combined genres and sonorities that oscillated between tradition and modernity as his discography encompassed filin, jazz, rumba, son or bolero, deployed in fifty albums.

In Cuba, the artist offered his last concert in the popular coliseum of the Ciudad Deportiva, on Tuesday, June 21 of this year.   Thousands of people gave Pablito a standing ovation in a night marked by iconic songs and others from his recent album Días de Luz, whose promotional tour took him to stages in the United States and Spain.