• Submitted by: lena campos
• Arts and Culture
• 09 / 12 / 2012

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Singer-songwriter Liuba María Hevia presented her first album thoroughly devoted to a genre she loves: tango

Cuban singer-songwriter Liuba María Hevia, whose vast career includes albums in which she explores traditional musical genres as well as music for children, presented her first album thoroughly devoted to tango, a genre she has publicly said to love.

Naranjo en flor (orange tree in bloom) is the name of her most recent album published by La Ceiba Record Label from the Office of the Havana Historian. In this album, Liuba sings a genre that has been described as “something that comes from afar to caress the ears/ like a dear memory nuanced with melancholy” by one of its greatest artists, Enrique Cadícamo.

To launch her new album, Liuba offered a unique concert in the Mella Theatre, Havana, where she sang all the tracks of the new album, which was on sale in the lobby of the theatre.

The album is the result of a rigorous selection of the best tango pieces. The Tango, which is closely related to Cuban bolero, talks about the heartbreak caused by love deceived the idea of the world as a tragic place, the nostalgia and the sense of defeat that only gives strength to sing.

Liuba sings some of the classics of the duo Gardel-Lepera, arguably the most renowned poet-musician duo among tango composers. Other pieces included are those of lesser known duos whose contributions to tango were also great such as Lucio Demare/Homero Manzi; Héctor Stamponi/Cátulo Castillo; or Hermanos Expósito. She also includes the “symphonic tango,” conceived by Astor Piazzolla (together with filmmaker Pino Solanas and Horacio Ferrer) which truly changed the way tango was composed; and some pieces written by true geniuses who gave birth to tango pieces such as Santos Discépolo, or more recently Osvaldo Montes, who also collaborated with Liuba in the album.

Liuba also sings some pieces written by women such as María Elena Walsh or Eladia Blázquez, which are rare in a genre that is usually sung from the men’s point of view, who always speak of their fragility in the face of the blows they receive from ungrateful women.

The album is organic and coherent in all aspects. Liuba gathered an “all-star” accompanying orchestra that helped her inculcate sensitivity and delicacy into every piece to which she added her personal insight. Her performance proves that it is not enough to have the tone to sing tango with authenticity and elegance; it also needs tuning, sensitivity and a personal grasp of the song, something that Liuba achieved both in the album and in the concert.

The concert offered at Mella was a delight for tango lovers and public in general. In addition to the exquisite and thorough tracklisting, Liuba’s conversation was also enjoyable, although she didn’t have to ask for applauses frequently. She was accompanied by a talented band, who undertook their job with professionalism. Other highlights of the concert were guest artists such as pianist Juan Espinosa, who has accompanied Liuba ever since her beginnings, showed his world class one more time at the concert, and guitarist Rosa Matos, who made an out-of-this-world rendition of Piazolla’s classic Adios Nonino.

But no work is perfect and, in the case of the concert, there were one or two things that hindered its brilliance. The sound system was faulty at times which hindered the performance of Matos. Also, the lack of scenery hampered the performance of the actors, who literally vanished in the background of the stage. However, some performances were nothing but brilliant, such as the one accompanying Volver at the end of the concert or Osvaldo Doimeadiós’ in another classic of Piazolla: Balada para un loco.

Actress Broselianda Hernández, who gives a sober and brilliant performance in the track Los mareados by Cobián and Cadícamo in the album, made an excessive and overacted performance in the theatre in a piece that already contains all the drama and tremendousness it needs and needs no excess or emphasis, as happened in the theatre.

Liuba María Hevia’s concert to launch Naranjo en flor, was a unique meeting with Tango. As Liuba said, she hopes this album opens the door to Cuban artists to enter and explore Tango, a genre in which the tree of disappointment and sadness is, paradoxically,  always flowering.

Source: Juventud Rebelde