Pedro Luis Ferrer

Pedro Luis Ferrer. A composer and guitarist who is practically self-taught and has composed preludes and fugues for piano and is one of the most important authors of Cuban popular music. He cultivates the décima, the sonnet, the redondilla and free forms of poetry.

He was born in Yaguajay, where he completed part of his primary studies. He came to live in Havana and completed sixth grade, later attempting several times to finish the first year of basic secondary school. We can say he barely attended school. His musical education is also a kind of intuition and self-taught effort. He gradually acquired knowledge that has allowed him to compose everything from songs and guarachas to works for guitar and various orchestral formats. He has composed preludes and fugues for piano. He has a modest poetic work (to qualify it in some way) barely published. He cultivates the décima, the sonnet, the redondilla... and free forms of poetry. In this sense he follows a family tradition learned from his father Rodolfo and his uncle Raúl Ferrer.

From a young age he was drawn to music, following the example of his father Rodolfo and uncle Raúl Ferrer and has also passed this on to his daughter Lena Ferrer.

In the mid-1960s he begins to link himself with small groups that unsuccessfully attempted to become professional. As part of one of these groups—the quartet Los Nova—he meets Carlos Alfonso (director of Grupo Síntesis) from whom he learns and experiences for the first time the handling of voices and makes contact with updated sources of popular music.

Musical Studies
The main studies related to music carried out by Pedro were:
Studies with Leopoldina Núñez, guitar.
With Juan Elósegui, music theory.
With Adolfo Guzmán, orchestration.
With Danilo Orozco, singing.
With Jesús Ortega, he studied guitar at the National School of Art

Being very young—in the mid-1960s—he begins to link himself with small groups that unsuccessfully attempted to become professional. As part of one of these—the quartet Los Nova—he meets Carlos Alfonso (current director of Grupo Síntesis) from whom he learns and experiences for the first time the handling of voices and makes contact with updated sources of popular music, until at the end of 1969 he is invited to join the rock group Los Dada, providing him for the first time with employment status, an experience he shared with Alfredo Areas—whom he considers his teacher and to whom he feels he owes much of his current musical aesthetic—and one of the most important troubadours of that era in Havana: Mike Pourcel, from whom he acquired many values in the realm of song and music in general. Through him he meets guitar teacher Leopoldina Núñez, from whom he received very valuable advice. An important fact for his education was his encounter with Victor Zayas, an excellent Cuban pianist, with whom he became introduced to the art of orchestration.

In 1973 Pedro Luis's career as a troubadour begins. In this decade he participates in multiple and sometimes fruitless projects. In mid-1970s he records his first LP—"Pedro Luis Ferrer"—; he travels to Europe for the first time and develops as an orchestrator. He performs in Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, East Germany and Mexico. He also deepens his study of guitar as a self-taught artist, interpreting works by Leo Brouwer, Carlos Fariñas, Harold Gramatges, Edgardo Martín, Albéniz, Tárrega, Johann Sebastian Bach (Segovia transcriptions), etc.

He also writes music for television series and some of these themes become very popular, such as "Operación Sitio". An important point in his career is the promotion of his song "Mariposa" in the voice of Mirian Ramos—a Cuban singer who joined the Nueva Trova movement, whose popularity grew notably interpreting this work. And we can point out as a culminating point within Pedro Luis's creation, at the beginning of the 1970s, the publication of his song Romance de la Niña mala—a poem by Raúl Ferrer—, one of his most requested works by the public.

The 1980s arrive. In this decade he begins to insist on the possibility of having a group of accompanying musicians; he records two LPs: "Debajo de mi voz" and "Espuma y Arena". This last album introduced a group of guarachas that quickly became very popular on the island, such as "Inseminación Artificial", "Como me gusta 'hablar' español", etc. These festive works had as precedents some songs from the 1970s such as "Al que le sirva el sayo" and "Son de la suerte esdrújula". Notable in these years is his relationship with master Jesús Ortega, from whom he received valuable advice and who served as editor of one of his first works for the instrument "Guitarra Suelta". The work he did for some documentaries and films of the then Film Section of the FAR stands out in this era, particularly his Canción a las Artillerías, a work that remained in public preference for months. In this decade he receives a replica of Máximo Gómez's machete and makes a brief visit to Angola with his group; he later travels again to Europe and Latin America.

The 1990s pass as a kind of furtive artistic life, nevertheless songs become popular—through underground and spontaneous public exchange—such as "Ciento por ciento cubano", "Marcha la Jinetera", "Abuelo Paco", "Él tiene delirio de amar varones", "Amigo Palero", "La Habana esta poblada de consignas", "Todos por lo mismo", "Cadena de pájaros", etc. Some of his songs are also heard on the radio and become very popular in the voices of other interpreters, as is the case with "Carapacho pa la jicotea". For a short time he worked with the Conjunto Artístico de las FAR in Guantánamo, where he came into contact with the aesthetics of Changüí and other important musical values from that eastern region. Notable in this period is the fact that Celia Cruz gives a masterful interpretation of his guaracha Mario Agüe.

Pedro Luis travels several times to the United States and gives concerts in New Orleans and Miami. He publishes his first CD abroad: "Ciento por ciento cubano". Shortly after, a CD is published in Havana with archival material, recordings from the 1980s, under the title "Lo mejor de Pedro Luis". He also conducts two tours through Germany.

In 1988 he presents with his daughter Lena on stages in Germany and Switzerland and signs an exclusive publishing and recording contract with the company Harbour Bridge. Finally, at the beginning of 1999 he conducts a tour through the USA promoting his new CD "Pedro Luis Ferrer" with the company Caliente Record, performing with a group of ten musicians in New York and Miami. In that same year, in the month of August—after more than ten years without performing in major venues—he offered two concerts in the great hall Avellaneda of the National Theater of Havana.
His last tour was through Spain, invited with his group to the "Caravana de Pirineo Sur" an event held as promotion for the festival of the same name (to which he is invited next year). He made five presentations, including one in Madrid and another in Barcelona. Those in Zaragoza, Huesca and Pau (a city in southern France) were very beautiful. He published a modest edition of his CD "100% Cubano". He also offered some presentations with his guitar. His performances were organized by YEIYEBA, a Spanish agency.

He has toured:
Poland where he participated in the Sopt Festival in 1977 and his music was also performed by the radio and television orchestras of Polish Lodz.
Sweden and Norway, where he offered recitals with songs and guitar solos.
Helsinki, Finland, where he performed with the Lov Récord orchestra.
Spain, where he spends long seasons.
Angola
Berlin with Grupo Manguaré, where he participated in the Festival of Political Song in that country, which was his first experience with a son group, and this, in part, changed his professional direction, when in 1981 he decided to create his own group. Furthermore, he has worked with Lena Ferrer, Lerlys Morales and Basilio Perodín.

Pedro Luis's Perspectives

"I have been somewhat self-taught in my training. Nevertheless, I always connected with the progressive music of my country. My first formal attempts were made with the group Los Dada, but later I decided to become a soloist. With my song Santiago, cuna y pan (one of my first compositions), I began to gain acceptance."

"I have tried to be original in my conceptions, as I think every artist should have their own personality. Nevertheless, I recognize the value of troubadours like Silvio Rodríguez to whom the Nueva Trova owes much and who indirectly contributed to my creation as a composer. I don't mean to say with this that I imitate someone, no, I started from an initiative by Silvio and to it I added my own contribution. At first my creative restlessness didn't know how to channel itself. But starting from the tune of Carlos Puebla, his Cuban message and with the idea projected by Silvio, I developed my line of work. That in its context brings together both expressions but is far from imitating them."

Danilo Orozco's Perspective

"With Pedro Luis there are references to the models and expressive codes of the center of the island, reinserted into a broad spectrum of processes assimilated in individual creativity: a virtuoso guitarist who, however, does not abuse this resource except in songs from an early period that nevertheless prove interesting. In general, his songs with lyricism and diaphanous methodology, sometimes melancholic, while adding peculiar inflections from the models of his strongest living context (center-east), nuanced in his peculiar "nasalism" and the nature of his powerful communicative voice, not to mention the song-sones and guarachas sprinkled with innovative rhythmic-harmonic contrasts and somewhat uncommon demonstrative sense."

For Pedro Luis Ferrer

"The festive texts of guarachas are governed by a historical and not arbitrary logic; they are determined to a considerable extent—because the authors also contribute their own—by the festive historical consciousness of our people. The creator's ingenuity counts on that concrete freedom of the Cuban sense of humor, whose essence is different from that of other peoples of America. The son and the guaracha have their own poetics and to judge their quality and development we must place ourselves within their essential historical logic. There are those who attempt to judge the quality of Cuban guaracha texts from a foreign and capricious poetic perspective. Of course, in that festive realm there are also unsuccessful attempts that fall far short of the traditional achievements of our great guardians of the guaracha. Moreover, it is not a matter of a festive, humorous, static and absolute essence, but a dialectical and relative one: the sense of humor and the way people entertain themselves are constantly transformed […]."

Moreover, guitar virtuosity is the result of complete technical training—though not systematic—on his instrument, as well as a beautiful and powerful sound. However, he is not one of those guitarists who employs great harmonic complexities and percussive resources, but, without a doubt, it could well be affirmed that if his accompaniments dispensed with the voice, they would remain as works for solo guitar of great intrinsic musical value. But what is essential in him is his deep-rooted Cubanness, that which allows him to create in the most diverse forms of our music, with masterful handling of creole roguishness, without forgetting the high lyrical flight present in all his production, that is to say, his talent as a poet. His songs invite reflection not devoid of honest criticism, and his "confidence in the utility of opining"

Works

Santiago, cuna y pan
Al que le sirva el sayo
Algo mas triste y más
La vaquita Pijirigua
Como me gusta hablar español
Al son de pitazo
Ciento por ciento cubano

Discography

1970. Recorded by EGREM. Album Pedro Luis Ferrer and Debajo de mi voz
1980. Recorded by EGREM. In espuma y arena
1994. Recorded by Carapacho Productions. 100% cubano
1999. Recorded by Caliente Records. Album Pedro Luis Ferrer
2005. ESCONDIDA, Ultra Records. Album Rústico
2006. ESCONDIDA, Ultra Records. Album Natural