Recalling Emiliano Salvador

(Prensa Latina- Cumbancha) Every time anyone talks about Cuban-style Latin Jazz, it is indispensable to mention the name of Emiliano Salvador in capital letters, above all for his undeniable national values. Born August 18, 1951, Salvador left a legacy to Cuban music, a milestone, deriving from his “Cubanness” while fusing the genre with indinenous rhythms such as son, guaguancó and mambo, with extraordinary richness and harmonic beauty.

Emiliano, one of the many talents coming from Art Schools during the 60’s, in the piano and percussion specialty, despite its short existence, his career could be classified as brilliant in a genre where also Chucho Valdés and Gonzalito Rubalcaba, who represented a new form to approach Cuban feeling in the genre, stand out.The excellent pianist, who died October 22, 1992, was one of the founders of the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC led by Leo Brouwer and from where figures such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and Sara González whose music in undeniable part of Cuban music from the 60’s.

Born in Puerto Padre, former province of Oriente, his first teacher was Emiliano Salvador Mora, his father, who directed a popular music orchestra. After graduating from piano and percussion in the National Art School (ENA) he took lessons of instrumentation, orchestration and other subjects in 1969 and perfected his piano knowledge. He become famous as one of the greatest Latin jazz pianists when he recorded his first long play titled Nueva Visión.

He visited several countries with his musicians and shared with great figures of the jazz scene. He died after he finished his fifth album, in a period when he was reaching maturity in his art, but Emiliano Salvador is one of those indispensable beings who, paraphrasing Brecht, never die.