Ana Mengotti |
Miami (EFE).- The Colombian singer-songwriter Carlos Vives chose to be “authentic” when he started in music and thirty years later not only does he not regret it but he renews his successful bet with an album of songs by the legend of vallenato Rafael Escalona, whom he played as an actor for a soap opera.
“At that time (the 90s) there were two paths: they told you here you can be famous, here you can be authentic,” he recalls in an interview with EFE to point out that he did not hesitate to take the second and give up copying the music of others. countries that were in vogue in those years.
“I decided to invent my pop or my rock from the folkloric patterns of Colombian diversity,” he recalls when talking about the 30-year career that he will celebrate in 2023, starting with the publication of the album “Escalona: it had never been recorded like this” .
As the first and only preview of that album that will be released this spring, this Thursday “La historia” came out, a song by Escalona about a man who suffers for a lost love, to which Vives gives new airs with the help of accordionist Egidio Cuadrado and the La Provincia group.
With them he recorded “Clásicos de la Provincia” in 1993, made up of versions of classic vallenatos but with a more commercial sound and instruments typical of cumbia and rock.
Tropi-Pop made him happy
That sound was called “tropi pop”, recalls Vives from the album “La gota fría” that projected the folklore of the Caribbean region outside of Colombia, the area in which Santa Marta is located, the city where he was born 61 years ago.
“We were able to find a sound from that matrix sound of our diversity, of being American, of being Spanish, of being African… I think that mix of everything we are is what made me happy in the end,” says this winner of 17 Latin Grammy Awards and two Grammy Awards, among many other recognitions and distinctions.
Vives was a pioneer, but he speaks of a “movement”, in the plural rather than the singular, and encompasses all those who have come after and have made Colombia a musical “power”, with names like Juanes, Cepeda, Aterciopelados, Fonseca, Shakira, Camilo and Sebastián Yatra, among others.
«When we recorded that cold drop and those classics we did it in an unconventional way, already looking for that way of being able to feel that we could be modern with our traditions», he says.
Vives recalls that “30 years ago if you wanted to be modern, you had to imitate someone or make music similar to what was made in Spain, Italy, or Mexico or make translations of the rock songs of the moment.”
Escalona, an old acquaintance
For Vives, the fecund composer Escalona (1927-2009), co-founder of the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, which inspires the album for his 30-year career, is an old acquaintance.
In 1991 he played Escalona as an actor in a popular soap opera and recorded songs in the traditional way such as “El Testamento”, “Jaime Molina”, “La Golondrina”, “El Villanuevero” or “La Casa en el Aire” for the soundtrack. , which were collected on two discs.
More than three decades later, he decided to drink again from that musical source, but from the so-called “lost notebook” by Escalona, which Vives found with the help of his “compadre” Egidio Cuadrado, the composer’s brother-in-law.
«The search for the notebook and the encounter with those pages were magical. Each writing consigned in that literary and musical journal hid new arrangements for the classics, as well as other songs,” according to a press release presenting “La Historia.”
Vives, who has sold more than 20 million records, tells EFE that selecting the twelve songs that he covers on his new album among everything that was in the notebook was not easy.
In addition to his 30th anniversary with music, Vives is already thinking of another: the 500 years of Santa Marta, which will be fulfilled in 2025 and which the singer-songwriter wants to be celebrated accordingly.