Customer Reviews

Guajiro Natural

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first came across the name Polo Montañéz (nèe Fernándo Borrego) while driving in San Francisco on a typically cloudless day with my fiancé and her sister who was visiting from Cuba. Yes, by way of visa and Party consent Cubans are allowed to visit relatives in the US. No doubt it requires a clean dossier. Anyways, as we cruised down the busy boulevard Geary Street, she persisted on us listening to the music of this fallen but charismatic guajiro, whose meteoric rise in the music charts was cut short by his tragic death in 2002 while returning by car from La Habana with his family to his hometown near Pinar del Rio. Yes, yes, all this in a single breath. This modest country peasant had just begun to fan out of his rural hamlet to display his remarkable gifts as a prolific décimista when tragedy struck.

He first took up guitarra, tumbadora and maraca as a young boy alongside his father, going from one casa de campo to another like itinerant troubadours, making merriment with punto guajiro in the Cuban countryside.

After many years of back breaking toil on the family farm, Polo began to whet his craft as artist and performer. He played for friends and family at improvised parties or guateques in neighboring bateys and later at more formal venues including local hotels, plazas and stadiums where he would display his musical energy and talent to enthusiastic audiences. With over 70 songs to his name, this amiable poet left us with an unforgettable musical legacy. Perhaps his greatest gift to the Cuban songbook was his "Guajiro Natural", an affirmation of the Cuban guajiro and his unassailable wit. Here was the simple and rustic trovador who in a brief moment of Cuban history captured in the amber of the Cuban spirit the distinct character of its guajiro. I believe he single handedly lifted the chins of his fellow guajiros and made them the unassuming proud heroes of the Cuban countryside. No longer need a guajiro feel inept or socially inferior to city compatriots.

Polo Montañéz conveys in his rich lyric the ethos and pathos of a nation characterized by years of indubitable economic, social and political paradoxes. Despite an arguably strained and nearly insuperable existence under a pointless economic embargo, a modest compesino can scale high above what can be viewed as subjective ruination and pour out his heart and soul into some of the most beautiful music ever to come from Cuba's countryside ("el campo" y "las montañas"). A man of profound humanity and acute awareness he searched both deep in his soul as well as drew from the rich lexicon of the natural guajiro including rural idioms, provincialisms, and naturalisms to express love, longing, hope and the trials and tribulations of life. His songs are pregnant with splendid symbolism and metaphor and joyously celebrate peasant life.

The curious appeal of Polo's music is that it is devoid of rhetoric; the language is natural, and without affectation. His music has a way of evoking a forlorn nostalgia in many who can relate to his symbolism and metaphors and easily connect to the rich expressions and experiences he so beautifully sings. Just close your eyes and quietly listen to "Un Montón de Estrellas" or Si Fuera Mia" and you'll see and hear what I mean.

While Polo Montañéz was steeped in punto guajiro and the rural traditions of improvised décimas, he also turned to various styles of Cuban music, but most notably, Cuban son. By way of dialectic of musical rhythms and instrumentation, Polo essentially created his own sound on which to set his remarkable lyricism. You will just as well dance as would listen to this wonderful music.

Polo Montañéz was a man of profound sentiments as well as deeply grounded in his rural roots. He was gifted and patient enough to give voice to his songs when the time was right. He never had any formal musical training. His muse was innate and incorruptible. In a brief life and even less as a celebrated artist, he was able to leave his mark in the ceaseless wake of Cuban and Latin American music. In the pantheon of Cuba's greatest poets he is an original and a rightful heir.

What happens when a campesino from the hills of Oriente Cuba, birthplace of such Cuban musical legends as Miguel Matamoros, Nico Saquito, Guillermo Portabales, Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa incorporates world music motifs into his authentic Cuban roots music?

It's a risky proposition to be sure. Eliades Ochoa's Sublime Illusion shows some of the risks attendant with combining son montunos from Oriente with other influences. That particular CD is harmed somewhat with his occasional incorporation of hackneyed mariachi trumpet lines designed to increase record sales in Mexico City.

But this release by Polo Montanez is something different, something very special.

First of all, his voice and the accompanying harmonies are surprisingly reminiscent of the early recordings of Ruben Blades(!). And there is some marvelous Peruvian flute work on this CD, readily distinguishable from the traditional flute lines used in Cuban charangas.

And some pretty slick authentic African-influenced chants, with roots running deeper than the slightly overrated Cesaria Evoria.

Polo writes all his own tunes, and his wizardry on the Cuban tres helps to keep this music solidly in the Cuban roots camp.

But his beautiful lyrics and courageous importation of other cultures makes this CD a must have for the Ochoa and Portabales fanatics among us.

This is the second time I've attempted to write a review for this remarkable disk. This is not, first of all, a disk of typical guajiro music. For that I would recommend Los Guaracheros de Oriente first and foremost. I prefer not to call this music "fusion", because that word tends to suggest an amalgamation that is not all that successful, either because the elements are assembled but not really conjoined, or because the elements are basically not compatible. Better, perhaps, to speak of a "spirit" here: a hauntingly beautiful Andean influence in the first song, joyful African call-and-response and harmonies in others. I don't really know how else to describe it, but there is a divine calm in this music even with its great energy. The ensemble is exceptional. Not simply a gathering of talented soloists -- a true conjunto of first-class musicians. The bass player, in particular, knows his instrument and his function well, and Montañez has a voice of extraordinary quality. If you have enjoyed the resurgence of Cuban music due to Buena Vista Social Club but have perhaps become a little jaded of the overly-exposed and overly- commercialized aspects, I would invite you to drink of this fresh, clear, and vital stream.

I don't have much to add to the the praise that others have made about this album.

I had the pleasure to listen to this CD from start to finish only to be devestated by the news that Polo Montanez was killed in a tragic car accident on the very same day. I discovered and lost my favorite musisician within a few hours. There aren't many artists where you listen to their CD once and still mourn their death as if you had known them your whole life.
Polo's voice soars above the sublime guitar work contained within this album and is made all the more haunting by his passing.

I have listened to this album every day since first hearing it in the summer of 2002 in Cuba...sadly in december lost to a tragic auto accident in the hills of his beautiful homeland. He'll be remembered forever and sadly missed all over the world. A real artist, real talent, amazing musician and song writer, the true soul of cuba.

i was in cuba outside of san cristobal visiting my family
when word of the terrible car accident on the autopista
involving Polo Montanez came my way in late november 2002. the
entire countryside was in mourning of the death of this great
and naturally talented "pinareno" from the western end of the island of cuba. polos music comes from the heart and his voice
is one of the finest to come out of the carribean. in a simple
but emotional debut, polo has establised himself as a moving
and genuine artist who firmly represents the western province
of pinar del rio and the relaxed lifestyle and people of the
countryside..... truly a guajiro natural

Simple, but not simplistic. Just folk/traditional Cuban recordings with the natural, basic sounds.

A gentle, relaxing album which speaks more by the words and music as much as from the heart.

This album isn't for the average fan, but a true fan of Latin American music.

Anyone who wants to hear what's hot in Havana right now (November 2001) should run--not walk--and pick up this album. I just returned from two weeks in Cuba and Montanez is, en este momento, far and away the-most-listened-to musical voice on the Island. Almost every record store is sold out of the CD, and bootleg copies are circulating en masse. And, as the other reviewers have already described, it's fantastic music.

I heard Polo for the first time while visiting Cartagena, Colombia. It was a spectacular night with a cool breeze. We were sitting outside at an outdoor dance lounge, listening to a Latin band sipping Margaritas. Polo was playing Live right next door. Once the band we were listening to stopped playing we could hear his music from across the way. I knew that I had to have this CD. So my husband surprised me in the airport with it whne he found it in one of the souvenir stores. I then told one of my fellow co workers about it and had him come into my office to listen to Polo. We immediatley looked it up on Amazon and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was for sale.

I am not sure whether I have much to add to the previous reviewer's contributions except five more stars. I'll briefly mention the traits that I found most remarkable. First and foremost, the outstanding quality of Montañez' voice, which has just a little roughness, perfectly natural for this kind of music. The ensemble is exceptionally close -- they really play together and communicate with one another. The bass player is superb and helps carry the music almost imperceptibly. I have yet to appreciate the violin playing, though. The melodies and the harmonies, especially the harmonies, are simply beautiful. The Andean - Cuban fusion on the first song makes it my favorite one on the disk. I see a sly bit of humor in the fact that "Un Bolero" is not a bolero; the next song is. The other reviewer is quite correct in saying that this is not typical guajiro music but nevertheless is a must for anyone who enjoys it. If your love for Cuban music began with BVSC and the related albums, as it did for me, take the next step: Go for something out of the way and out of the glare of publicity. Then start sharing the secret.