Fidel Castro’s revolution brought a new musical style to Cuba, nueva trova – not dance music, for which the country had become rightly famous, but the work of singer-songwriters. The new form of the music had strong links with the leftwing nueva canción (new song) movement in Chile and Argentina, and placed an emphasis on poetic lyrics – though the subject matter did not deal only with politics and protest, but could include love songs and reflections on life in the new revolutionary society.
Pablo Milanés, who has died in Madrid aged 79, was one of the great composers of nueva trova. A Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist, he toured the world as musical ambassador for the new Cuba, often alongside the style’s other major star, Silvio Rodríguez. Jan Fairley, a specialist in Cuban music, described the hallmark of their songs as being “a sense of metaphysical emotion of joy and loss, an existential questioning, particularly of the vicissitudes of personal relationships ... They are part of a generation which redefined the subject matter of Cuban song.”
