Luis Mariano Carbonell Pulles

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Renowned reciter known as "The watercolorist of Antillean poetry". Unique of his kind. For years he is invited to be part of the faculty of music schools of the Ministry of Culture. He is a reciter, authentic, full and simple, one of those artists that everyone admires for his dedication and professionalism. Some explain his success through the creation of a unique style that makes him a classic. Due to his prolific work he is deserving of numerous decorations.

He excelled in the arrangement of voices and was a repertorist with solid knowledge of working with soloists, whom he accompanied as a pianist.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba and there he began his artistic work when he used to recite at family gatherings and among friends. Part of a family of seven siblings, his mother wrote and taught poetry to his older sisters. She was, without a doubt, the person who most marked his life and career.

Later, in 1943, he was invited to participate in the radio station CMKC in an amateur program, subsequently becoming the artistic director of that space.

He shared duties as an English teacher and radio work, when in 1945 he left for New York, where a meeting took place with Esther Borja, decisive in his artistic development, who introduced him to Ernesto Lecuona, thanks to whom he performed on the NBC network.

It was the Puerto Rican Diosa Costello who led him to perform at the Teatro Hispano, which opened the doors of the prestigious Carnegie Hall where he came to offer a recital.

He always fought to elevate the level of recitation of Afro poetry. For this reason I created a technique that is not learned in a day, but in six decades of effort. He frequently tells his students: I am explaining 60 years of experience to you in 60 minutes.

He is self-taught. By himself he learned the use of voice, the selection of themes, of material, through constant reading, exercises, rehearsals and his personal experience. Little by little he has been creating a methodology that he now puts into practice for his own work and for the amateur artists who attend his classes.

On one occasion, during a tribute to singer René Cabel, Pepe Biondi, a member of a very famous Argentine comedy duo of that time, upon seeing him perform, expressed to him: "what you do is not reciting, it is much more, when you express yourself it is as if you were drawing with watercolor". This was the origin of the nickname that has identified him since then: "the watercolorist of Antillean poetry".

But Luis Mariano Carbonell is much more. Because while it is true that when one listens to and sees him interpreting a poem –whether of the so-called Black poetry, epic, or love– he can transport us to the context, to the atmosphere, to the whole world that the verse suggests or makes explicit, his command of voice and harmony, of exact inflection and impeccable diction, of music and silence, together with subtle gesture and natural expression, achieve beyond the "drawing", opening the doors of emotion and participation of those of us who vibrate enchanted by the spell.

There is no doubt, he is a master of vocal art and the stage, of all its resources and effects, who conducts himself with equal success through humor or misfortune, and who gives himself with equal passion and demands before the public of the renowned theater or that which fills the simple activity of the neighborhood or the workplace.

In 1985, he made three records with the Cubaney label and EGREM recorded several albums for him, some of which have been marketed abroad and recently the CD La mulata, Ñáñigo al cielo and other poems. His work as a teacher, pianist, repertorist and voice arranger has been truly important, to the point that his presence is essential when making the history of quartets and other vocal groups.

Luis Carbonell has a special preference for the violin and the piano, which together with the rhythm of percussion instruments, are incorporated into his art.

And it is worth adding his work as a teacher, pianist, repertorist and voice arranger to the point that his presence is essential when making the history of quartets and other vocal groups in Cuba. For this reason he holds the Distinction for National Culture, the Raúl Gómez García Medal, the Félix Varela Order (1996), and the National Prizes for Humor (2003) and Music (2003).

At an age when most people resort to necessary rest or to enjoying the work accomplished and the tributes received, Luis Carbonell continues to create with passion and integrity –which he has had to use greatly to overcome the aftermath of a health accident–, with his memory intact and still full of dreams, there, in his modest apartment in Vedado in the capital, where Cuban culture knows him as faithful and irreplaceable.

He died in Havana on May 24, 2014 at the age of 90
See: Six decades in glory https://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2013/07/26/cultura/artic04.html