Adalberto Álvarez: What Is Important Is Music

The so-called Gentleman of Son received the 2008 National Music Award.
Composing is still one of the greatest pleasures for Adalberto Álvarez.

Adalberto Álvarez is a kind of enlightened sonero [player of son, a Cuban rhythm]. A man who knows how to guard himself from fashions and snobbery. He belongs to the group of soneros and salseros who compose music with sobriety and poise. The Álvarez phenomenon became solid with his own band, where he sings, composes and plays the keyboard, always with an identifiable style. His face is usually welcome on television by those fellow countrymen and women who prefer to listen to restrained lyrics. (Adalberto Álvarez. Photo: Archive).

With nearly 40 years on the stage, Adalberto Álvarez continues to be the calm face of Cuban son, a man who knows how to guard himself from fashions and snobbery; and who prefers, despite the current times, to play in the best style of tradition.

Belonging to the group of soneros and salseros who compose with sobriety and poise, Álvarez is one of those rare points of contact between followers and critics of salsa [music], who use him in controversies as the perfect example of the artist who combines both lyrics and music authentically.

The National Music Award just presented to him is a very well-deserved accolade, which he could have had even before.

Although he was popular as a singer in Son 14, a band from some 25 years ago, the Álvarez phenomenon became solid with his own band, where he sings, composes and plays the keyboard, always with an identifiable style as the first notes are heard.

Adalberto Álvarez is a kind of enlightened sonero [player of son, a Cuban rhythm] who does not make any musical transformations out of whims or fashions, but to channel what he calls difficult combination of the merge between the most contemporary sound and tradition.

A charismatic, pleasant man, he is still associated with one of the early songs that gave him fame, A Bayamo en coche, which he wrote during a tour with Son 14 of the central part of the Island. He saw that next to the bus terminal there was one stand for horse-drawn carriages, and he felt like taking one to get to Santiago de Cuba, in the eastern tip.

Popularized in the 80s, it has been one of the most acclaimed pieces in Álvarez’s repertoire, as he likes poised lyrics that delve into the nation’s psychology with finesse and not offending listeners’ sensitivities.

Perhaps that is the reason why his face is usually welcome on television by those fellow countrymen and women who prefer to listen to restrained lyrics and watch a calm stage performance in which, by the way, he attaches more importance to his work than to the display of the singers.

Composing continues to be one of his greatest pleasures, particularly the songs on the CD that is still not on the market. However, he admits that this job is increasingly difficult after nearly four decades of trying to play into the audience’s preference.

“During the first stage of your career, you get eight hits out of eight, or seven out of eight, but it’s different when many years go by. Times are changing; the appeal with the people is different, and we also have work commitments to keep. The problem is not to make music like sausages,” he said about the much-debated issue of quality and popularity.

Álvarez is obsessively careful in composing, for when he senses that a song is not going to be to people’s liking, he dismisses it before it even goes to the repertoire. “I like to produce [music] so it can be seen. I make music for people to dance to,” he ascertained in another interview years ago.

As with nearly everyone else, Adalberto Álvarez is visited by nostalgia every now and then, but not to dwell with melancholy on times past; rather, to give a look of satisfaction at overcome stages, like a glass of water along the road.

With a large résumé of tours of Europe and some visits to the United States, the so-called Gentleman of Son keeps himself as busy as bee. About the controversy of whether Cuban salsa [music] is called timba, he prefers to stay out of the fire, as someone who is very self-assured because, in short, what is important for him is music.