The album of the week: "El piano y yo", Miriam Ramos

September 21, 2018

One of the categories that are predicted to be most difficult in this 22nd edition of the Cubadisco 2018 festival is Cancionística. Within it there is a constellation of names and records that will surely be a headache for the juries in charge of determining the prize. I'm telling you about today El piano y yo by the essential Miriam Ramos, a recording production belonging to the Unicornio Label of Abdala S.A. Productions, 2018.

Miriam Ramos is one of the most important voices in contemporary Cuban song. In this work she joins four renowned Cuban pianists: Ernán López-Nussa, Alejandro Falcón, Rolando Luna and Harold López-Nussa, to exquisitely perform some musical pieces from her repertoire, which confirms the vocal mastery of her 55 years of artistic life. Singer, composer and guitarist, actress and host of radio and television programs, Miriam already knows what it is to win the Cubadisco, having been recognized in 1999 with the Grand Prize and in 2000 in the Song category.

As if that weren't enough, the CD comes with a DVD that documents the entire recording process of this phonogram, which has earned it another nomination this year in the Making Off category. With exquisite melodies, alternated by the prodigious hands of the four piano masters who participate, this record proposes pieces by canonical authors of Cuban and international music, among which stand out Marta Valdés, René Touzet, Sindo Garay, Mike Porcel, Rafael Hernández and Chico Buarque. The unwavering voice of Ramos occupies this time measured registers that stand out from the very peacefulness of her style, showing the virtuosity that characterizes her. It is worth highlighting the song Embraceable you, where she sings in English, and the excellent version—forceful and melodic—of No te empeñes más, by Marta Valdés. Also, the temporal transition that includes the anonymous El colibrí, once popularized by Silvio Rodríguez, and which scholars place in the nineteenth-century voice of the Trinitarian Catalina Berroa.

An enjoyable record from beginning to end, that returns to the public the taste and rigor for the best of Cuban and international song.

And to remind you, I leave you a sample of the unsurpassable songwriting spirit of Miriam Ramos: her version of Perla Marina, accompanied on piano by Gonzalito Rubalcaba.

Sit down and listen! The soul of song has arrived.