Hamman is the smallest of all stages. Perfect size for soloists, duets, and at most, a trio. This place also keeps a certain secret. In Hamman, the artist goes up to the stage with the minimum, only with his or her voice or instruments.
There is no room to hide. The place breathes intimacy with its few scattered chairs and the tenderness of a simple garden, between a pair of small trees.
This space has hosted memorable performances, such as Galician duo Caamaño & Ameixeiras last year and Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko at this year’s festival.
Then, Argentine artist Delfina Cheb arrived with that precedent and context. The night started rolling, seated with her guitar, an orange background, she began singing at 9:45 pm.
Her opening track “La Noche larga”, composed by the singer, lasted six minutes. Delfina conveyed the vulnerability and fragility of human emotions while she sang about someone seeking to escape the burden of a broken heart or the struggles of daily life. Relaxed chords provided the soothing preamble, the pain disappeared slowly, and she started to feel better at the dawn of a long night. The Mexican writer Angeles Mastretta once wrote that our eyes burn when our tongue finally says the things it has been silent about for a long time. Delfina closed her eyes to hide the burning sensation and to channel her anguish into singular vocal inflections.
“Milonga del Trovador,” by Horacio Ferrer and Astor Piazzolla, was another song of the night. The gaucho and Indian pride of coming from South America was a declaration of loyalty and a tribute to the wisdom of the storytellers. Delfina is not even 26 years old and got into tango and milonga, genres where the youth does not tend to gravitate, but which was the music that she listened to at home. She finds her country’s authentic music, cultivates it, nurtures it, and that peculiar phrasing sets her apart from the crowd.
Another song “Esquinas porteñas,” depicts neighborhoods and nostalgia. The lyrics go: “Shady little street is poetry, they saw us go one happy day, the two of us, companion of the sun and the stars. That afternoon went away, the path to God.” Cheb reinvents this well-known tango, bringing a new perspective and freshness to it.
During the night, Delfina spoke in both English and Spanish, engaging with the audience through humor. She fostered direct and clear communication. While exploring classic Argentine genres, she approached them with flexibility.
Delfina collaborated with producer Javier Limón and his company, Casa Limón, on her albums Doce milongas de amor y un tango desesperado (2020) and Buenos Aires (2022). Limón, who had been her teacher in Boston, brought his distinctive touch to both projects.
At 17, she enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston to pursue a double major in jazz composition and vocal performance. She then completed a master’s degree in contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory. She also planned to pursue a doctorate in musicology at the same institution.
With the allure of music, Delfina captivated audiences at Hamman with the calmness and honesty of her singing. In this historic venue, once a place for purifying Turkish baths, we all felt rejuvenated by her performance. Her closing message was clear: we always have a chance to start anew.
Author: Rafael Mieses
