The Cubadisco of today

Like the legendary Long Play, the digital audio compact disc today sings its latest tunes of life. The different applications for music playback via streaming, available on popular operating systems, impose the "logic" that it is easier to "click" a song from home before buying a CD at any store. Every day the digital marketing of music grows and this forces large, medium and small companies to redesign their distribution, promotion and sale systems.

Faced with this hectic world it is possible that some businessmen, musicologists or artists wonder, how is it possible that Cuba still sustains a record production in the face of its shortcomings? And for those of us who do not master the dynamics of the music market and its fees, copyrights, etc., we are excited to believe that the creators and producers of this Island still dream of an integral process: from inspiration to final packaging. So it is and will be (however minimal the time) a pleasure to have in our hands a work with the intervention of several people and all with the same purpose: create, create and create.

We can agree or disagree with what we propose here, but that the disc is expensive and the digital age swallows it, it is true. All this means that those who dedicate themselves to music have several options on the table: either to make a work that lasts for its value or to die in the hands of momentary popularity.

That is also the challenge of those who organize an event as important as the Cubadisco that in this 2019 reaches its 23 edition. The "struggle" to select the best products is not an easy task for the jury, composed of musicologists, journalists, directors of programs, producers ... We do not know how an event like that works in Cameroon, but in Cuba, Island of the Music is complex. If we judge by the results of previous years when, for example, the works of María Victoria or Beatriz Márquez were awarded with great prizes, we can trust the criteria and concepts that revolve around this record festival dedicated to the centenary of Benny Moré and the 500 Years of Havana

From the 18th to the 26th of May while the proposals are being discussed, an international symposium is held with a theoretical program of lectures and workshops given by recognized figures of the Cuban sound panorama, concerts and the launching of phonograms by their respective record companies, as well as the presentation of festivals and musical events.

SOME PROPOSALS IN QUESTION

More than 20 categories were structured in order to highlight the work of other professionals as designers or compilers ... And in each of them the album acquires a greater dimension. We highlight some proposals such as La razón no valía, ambitious tribute to the great Moraima Secada that the tireless Felipe Morfa made with Bismusic. A wide selection of unpublished songs by the unforgettable singer along with a documentary.

In the category Sonera y Campesina Tradition includes the album Entre cuerdas by María Victoria Rodríguez (Bismusic) who competes with four other productions. Soltando energía (Bismusic) from the popular Emilio Vega appears in instrumental music while in Cancionística the Standars americanos CD stands out by that idol that is Pablo Milanés.

Other discs that "threaten" are: Atrapasueños, by Tony Ávila, (Egrem); Canta, disfruta y crece by the Tiny Choir (Bismusic), Una parte de mí, by Abel Geronés, (Bismusic) and Con todo respeto Haila canta a Armando Manzanero, by Haila María Mompié, (Bismusic) among more than 90 albums with attractive designs and careful musicological notes.

As always, the Organizing Committee opens the doors to those works made outside of Cuba that aspire to the International Awards. In this edition they expect to receive the award the Dutch Maité Hontelé and several artists for Cuba linda; Olga Cerpa for Vereda tropical; the Martinique Symphony Orchestra for Manuel Cesaire. Rapsodia negra y fantasías martiniquenses; Simone Dinerstein and Havana Lyceum Orchestra directed by José Antonio Méndez for Mozart in Havana and the charming Spanish Zenet for his Cd La guapería, some tasty versions of Cuban popular songs.

The XXIII Cubadisco International Music Fair 2019 will feature venues such as the Cuba Pavilion, the Casa del Alba Cultural, the Mella Theater Gardens and Coppelia, the emblematic corner of Prado and Neptuno, the Plaza Cultural Center of 31 and 2, and the theaters Karl Marx, Mella, and Salas Avellaneda and Covarrubias of the National Theater of Cuba.

The album as "beginning and end" of an endangered format where research and detail still survive in each work so that a song saves our lives.