Pancho Amat turns 70 years old

April 24, 2020

Great tres players have existed in Cuba, each with their own style. But where Pancho Amat has reached, hardly anyone else has. With him, the execution of the tres has not only achieved an unsuspected degree of virtuosity, but also a full freedom and openness toward sound universes never before explored by players of the instrument. All of this without losing even a shred of Cubanness, nor ceasing to respond, in most cases, to the identifying features of the son complex. Due to this quality, Pancho is compared, with absolute legitimacy, to the most creative exponents of Latin jazz.

With Pancho, many of his admirers, here or there, we celebrated on April 22nd his seven decades of life, committed to music, since from the moment he opened his eyes —and his ears— in Güira de Melena, no matter how many music-related toys they gave him, he ended up placing his hands on a tres.

His professional career took off in 1971, when a group of young people, among whom he was found, traveled to the Chile of Popular Unity. From the tres to the charango, from son and punto guajiro to cuecas, huaynos and zambas. From Cuban Nueva Trova, in a state of takeoff, to Latin American Nueva Canción. Pancho was a cornerstone of the group Manguaré, which assimilated and shared work with Quilapayún and Víctor Jara.

As it had to be, Manguaré increasingly nourished its repertoire of Cuban music through the side of a rejuvenated tradition. And Pancho with his tres contributed to that recovered territory emerging with greater distinction. And for the tres to increase its hierarchy.

In explaining this process, he states: "When son was born, the tres was the protagonist, the only instrument that produced sound was the tres, everything else was percussion. But when it began to work with other instruments with greater possibilities like the bass, guitar, trumpets and piano, the tres became cornered. Furthermore, it ended up in the hands of tres players who were illiterate. So why have a man who can't read a score for me on a wretched instrument, if I have a complete instrument like the piano, with a man who is also an arranger and reads scores. It happened that people didn't hire tres players and they realized there was no space for them. Of course, great tres players existed, like Isaac Oviedo, El Niño Rivera, Arsenio Rodríguez, Luis Lija in Puerto Rico, Neneíto de Marianao and Chito Latamblé. In my time the tres needed a new impulse."

Out of modesty he doesn't say so, but for Pancho, the tres is much more than an instrument. He is among those who differentiate the musician who only makes music from one who knows what to do with music. Pancho counts himself among the latter.

Upon leaving Manguaré, he collaborated with Adalberto Álvarez's orchestra for a few years, until with the new century he headed his own project, El Cabildo del Son, without ceasing to heed the call of outstanding Cuban musicians and those from other countries who wanted to hire him for studio sessions, performances and international tours. Hence his name appears alongside Joaquín Sabina and María del Mar Bonet, Silvio Rodríguez and Frank Fernández, Oscar D' León and Papo Lucca, Cesaria Évora and Dave Valentin, John Parsons and Andy Montañez; the same a small group as a symphonic orchestra. What is called, a versatile and absolutely convincing musician. An indispensable musician.