Luxury edition of "Amor", Haydée Milanés's album, includes voices of 14 singers from six countries

June 18, 2019

Artists from six countries share their styles and admiration for Pablo Milanés in the deluxe edition of the album Amor, a resounding triumph in the career of Haydée Milanés, who today is fine-tuning details to publish it in Cuba.

My father and I, we both love the same things, music, songs, poetry, commented the youngest daughter of one of the great composers of Latin America.

Twenty years ago, she fled from proposals to associate her career with her father's, but after two decades of demonstrating talent and personality, came acceptance, fulfillment, in short, maturity, which inspired her to return to her origins, to some of the songs sung in her childhood home, when they were born from the chest and guitar of Pablo.

After accepting the blessing and in accordance with her experiences, the arranger and producer chose the guitar as the main instrument of the first album and managed to get her father, over 70 years old, to play again after a long time without doing so.

In addition, she proposed voices for each vocalist with the purpose of performing as a duet, between her and Pablo: "To Live," "Today Perhaps You Are Not Further Away," "You See," "A Night of Success Awaits You," "That Age Is Already Leaving," "Love," "I Saw Her Today," "The Brief Space Where You Are Not," "Sometimes When the Sun," "The 405 of Never," and "Song."

Thanks to Haydée's creativity and determination, some of the best versions of these songs emerged, the fruit of accumulated knowledge, the sensitivity of the woman turned mother, her passion for poetry books, and the desire to live love with loyalty.

That album had not finished being presented in 2017 when the young musician was already working on a deluxe edition, even bolder, by combining different voices, styles, genres, also by demanding new arrangements, by adding the sounds of 14 renowned vocalists from six nations.

Haydée multiplied her challenges, committed herself to sharing art intelligently, and once again managed to give temperament to each song in an attempt defined by her as an impulse to share love with figures close to her father.

She transformed "If She Ever Left Me" into a kind of bachata-son to which she added the accordion and the voice of Mexican Julieta Venegas, while radiating in "I Don't Ask You" the vibrant character of Argentine Fito Páez and enriched it with the special participation of Pablo himself.

"Identity" recreates an exquisite rumba with Cuban Ibeyi as guests, Cucurucho Valdés on piano and percussion by Osaín del Monte, two musicians who took charge here of the instrumental arrangements.

Mexican Lila Down personalizes "Life Is Worth Nothing" with her unique way of singing about existence from pain and rebellion; while a heartbroken Pancho Céspedes caresses "Beside Me" and "First Love" in a terrifying manner, because between him and Haydée they achieve what appear to be definitive, unsurpassable versions.

Omara Portuondo, legendary diva, imprints her seal on the cherished "Yolanda" and on another reflective and tremendous song about life: "Solitude." Her countryman Carlos Varela invites nostalgia in "The Days of Glory," as does Spanish Silvia Pérez Cruz in "You See"; divine contrast with Dominican Pavel Núñez in the melodic and energetic "Homage."

The album's blessings multiply with Spanish Joaquín Sabina in "There Is"; Argentine Pedro Aznar in "Years"; Mexican Rosalía León in "It Has Not Been Easy"; his compatriot Edgar Oceransky in "The Love of My Life"; and, to close, Brazilian Chico Buarque incites sensuality in the devout "All Eyes Look at You."

The album conducts through diverse emotions, transmitted through rhythms of son, rumba, bachata, jazz, trova, among other rhythms, and several times Cucurucho Valdés appears on piano and as instrumental arranger, Enrique Plá on drums, Jorge Reyes on bass, Raúl Verdecia on acoustic guitars, and an extensive list of professional musicians.

This has been a very laborious album, beloved, long-awaited, the young woman confessed in a recent meeting with the press, in which she announced that after presenting the album in Mexico she plans to print it in Cuba with the Bis Music record label and thus be able to distribute it in her homeland starting in September.

The plans include a concert in Havana with some of the album's guests, giving it a charm that arouses a desire for new duets, an aspiration to prolong that poetic journey through different facets of life.