A Decade Without Santiago Feliú, But With an Album in the Works

February 12, 2024

The luminous rage of the songs that Santiago Feliú stopped giving away a decade ago when a heart attack prematurely ended his life at age 51, will seek to be replaced by an album where local artists will bring together classics and unpublished pieces by the Cuban troubadour.

Younger brother of Vicente (who died in December 2021 at age 74) who was one of the founders of the Cuban New Song Movement alongside Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and Noel Nicola, Santiago contributed an incendiary pen and a powerful sound, also sustained by his peculiar left-handed touch on a guitar whose string order he never modified.

Thanks to that character, he became an inspirational intergenerational bridge that connected those pioneers with new voices, such as those of Gerardo Alfonso, Carlos Varela, Frank Delgado and Kelvis Ochoa.

"Like Silvio, the younger musicians in Cuba remain faithful to the commitment we must assume, but we don't have a complacent attitude toward things we don't like," he once told Télam in Buenos Aires.

Feliú was a frequent visitor to the country where he lived for several years during the 1990s, a time when he built personal and aesthetic relationships with Juan Carlos Baglietto, Fito Páez and León Gieco, among other musicians.

Building on that shared memory, José Bonavita –first a fan, then producer and finally a friend– is preparing a tribute album with a local touch to celebrate the artist's 62nd birthday, which would fall on March 29th.

And although details still remain to confirm the participation of several celebrities, the promoter of the tribute record tells Télam in advance that it will be "an album with many artists and based on the particular sound of Feliú's guitar," in this case performed by instrumentalist from Pergamino Félix Robledo, also responsible for the arrangements.

The nearly finalized repertoire will include essential pieces from Santiago's songbook such as "Para Bárbara," "Vida," "Sin Julieta" (which promises a "chacarereado" tempo), and "Bolero."

Among the confirmed collaborations are voices from the independent song scene such as Paula Ferré on "Búscame (sobrevolando un sueño)," "Kuky" Picone on "Era," the Duo La Trova on "Ansias del alba" and guitarist from Esquel Agustín Cristiani on "Amigo dibujo."

The material will include highlights with the inclusion of unpublished Feliú songs such as "Gemma" and "Otra vez las náuseas," adding an extra value to the series of tributes held in Cuba and recorded in the volumes "Los amores del diablo" and "Vida a vida."

"We decided to make an album with the guitar as the protagonist because Santiago had the project of making an album of that nature," explains the producer, not overlooking the fact that this intimate format also makes it easier to sustain this independent production.