Yaima Sáez in Spain

November 5, 2019

This year the renowned performer Yaima Sáez has taken a varied repertoire of Cuban music to Spain for the first time. Havana was the pretext for this first encounter, and now the doors of the "Mother Country" are opening again for her to showcase a musical variety that, from Song, has built a sensitive bridge of communion with an audience for whom she was previously unknown.

The performer comments exclusively on this experience:

I arrived in Spain for the first time between May and June of this year, with an invitation made through the Ministry of Culture to be part of a show that would take place at La Plasita, a leading center for Cuban culture in Reus, Tarragona. This celebration would be part of all the other festivities that have been held this year inside and outside of Cuba to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana.

"Based on that first encounter and the tremendous reaction from the regular audience at this cultural center, which I am infinitely grateful for, its general director Amarilys Pérez Martínez, whom I also thank in the same way for the interest she showed in my work, made possible this second invitation to carry out a series of concerts, now as a solo artist.

The experience has been very special. You meet people who value Cuban music greatly, even when they don't have current information about what is happening on the Island in essentially musical terms. That's why it has been a most pleasant surprise that they appreciate my particular way of doing Cuban song, which bets on more innovative arrangements and, sometimes, even risky ones.

It is worth adding in that sense the connection that has existed with the young Catalan musicians belonging to the Superior School of Music of Catalonia (Esmuc), who have been accompanying me at the concerts, amazed by the complexity of both the arrangements and the rhythmic diversity of Cuban music; they have challenged themselves in pursuit of achieving a genuine sound and that has made me feel very honored and privileged that they accompany me.

Their names are Biel Solsona on piano, Marc Dino Gómez on drums, Ferran on bass and Gisela Alegret on trumpet.

When Yaima refers to the timbral complexity of the repertoire she currently champions, her most recent album titled Armonía and its impact on this new audience immediately comes to light.

Indeed, the repertoire I am using most in these concerts in Spain, independent of the classics of Cuban song, is from the album Armonía which, without a doubt, has marked a turning point in my vision and work progression.

I consider it to be my most complete album to date; it was produced by Cuba's oldest record label, Egrem. With the songs from Armonía I feel that I have achieved high empathy with the audience. They have identified with what they have heard under other sounds and yet 'in my own way,' curiously they have worked for them.

And it is that the audience at La Plasita reminds me of those in Cuba who attend my performances, and sometimes they even behave more expressively than those at home when something surprises them for the better. They really enjoy the delivery, and the reward is always their sustained applause.

I am really very happy with what I am experiencing, and I already carry in my wings the idea of what my next recording could be, which should also move under the banner of harmonic experimentation and continue betting on Song.

Definitely no matter how strong the winds blow, is the path still Song for Yaima Sáez?

Yes, with fortunes and misfortunes, the path is definitely Song because it is how I live, suffer, enjoy; I wake up each day certain of who I am and what I want.

So for now in December we'll see each other in Cuba making Song.