The hall of the Dominican Medical College was dressed in luxury with the presence of who is considered the best interpreter of the Cuban tres, a derivation of the guitar that has six strings tuned in three even orders, to which it owes its name.
Talking with him, shortly before his presentation with the also Cuban “Robertico El Sabor”, Prensa Latina learned about the artist’s close relations with this Caribbean nation and his current and future projects.
He commented that his ties with Santo Domingo, linked to Havana by strong historical and cultural ties, began in 2007 when at a Son Congress he met his wife, a Dominican anthropologist.
He remembered two dear friends, the local singers Sonia Silvestre and Víctor Víctor, both exponents of the so-called new song.
Amat maintained that in the music of the two nations “there is a common denominator of sounds and rhythms and genres that are somehow related.”
A cultured and cheerful man, he highlighted that the musical spirit that distinguishes the Caribbean is widely perceived in this country, since “Dominicans, he said, feel the son as theirs and with its own right.”
In this regard, he spoke about the Son dancing spaces that exist here and reflected that “the nationals dance it like in the 50s and 60s of the last century, very close together, like we no longer do in Cuba.”
He pointed out that, in these places, it is common to see photographs of the Cuban flag, of the singer and composer Benny Moré (1919-1963) with his hat, cane, jacket and wide pants, and also of Arsenio Rodríguez (1911-1970), who played three. “Two greats who, he said, are icons for Dominicans.”
In the conversation, Amat said that “I always come with number three and I meet with my friends; We lost Sonia Silvestre, who died while being the cultural attaché of her country in Havana and was a regular singer in the troubadours’ club in Cuba, and also Víctor Víctor, but there is a new generation that is interested in son and there are boys here “They want to play the three.”
He told Prensa Latina that among his plans is “to do a sonero circuit in the Caribbean area with friends from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, so that we can connect, because thanks to the Internet you do not have to be in person in the place to participate in an event,” he said.
He pointed out that he is also working on “a new edition of the Buena Vista Social Club” based on the interest of the people of the Canary Islands and an office of that Spanish community – with which artists from the island work – to rescue this group of legendary musicians. Cubans who cultivated son in the 30s-50s of the last century.
Amat specified that “the songs are there, they are part of the reservoir of Cuban music, and the only thing we have to do is take them and incorporate others that reveal the continuity of our music at its roots.”
Some of the Buena Vista musicians came together in the 90s to record and make international presentations that transcended them by winning a Grammy Award in the United States.
The tresero added that he continues working with Su Cabildo del Son and is planning to make an album of Tres and Quena, the latter with an Argentine (Rodrigo) who lives in Cuba and plays that instrument very well. “They are crazy things that make you fall in love and give you the hope to continue working.”
When asked, what about Pancho’s hat, why does he always wear it? She responded immediately: “It was Sara González (Cuban singer, member of the Nueva Trova movement, now deceased) who told me to wear it and since then it has been part of my wardrobe.”
Regarding the changes he made to his figure, Amat recalled that «Sara, the full sister I never had, told me that my mustache was ridiculous; I grew my beard to please her and not satisfied she pointed out to me: you grew down, now you have to grow up, put on a hat.
Again he listened to him and since then he identifies it, although he also likes it “because my father used it.”
lam/mpv
