Sé Feliz

En The New York Times acaba de aparecer una reseña de “Sé feliz” disco que grabara Descemer Bueno con Fernando Álvarez y que no me canso de recomendar a todo el que no sea sordo. Ahora puede adquirirse en descarga.com. Un avance del disco aquí.
Abajo los créditos y el comentario:
Canciones:
Se Feliz 2:26
Palabras De Amor 2:19
Dime Si En Sí 3:07
Conejo 2:56
La Paz 2:40
Viene A Mí 3:19
Violeta 2:49
Qué Me Esconde Tu Alma 4:00
Ola 3:24
No Te Vayas 3:04
Me Siento Tan Loco 4:34
Muerta 3:42

Músicos:
Fernando Alvarez Voz
Ronald Morán Bajo
Elmer Ferrer Guitarra acústica y slide
Alejandro "El Picaro" Aparicio Tumbadora
Leonardo Angel Bateria y bongos
Yosvany Terry Sax
Julio Padrón Trompeta
Mario "El Indio" Hernandez Trompeta
Irvin Icao Saxo
Jorge Perez Trombon
Roberto Carcasses Piano
Felipe Cabrera Bajo
Hector Perez Violin
Armando Garcia Violin
Lestor Mejias Viola
Romani Cana Cello
Serafin Rubens Bajo

FERNANDO ÁLVAREZ AND DESCEMER BUENO
''Sé Feliz ...''
(Egrem)
Boleros are like monuments, slow and chiseled love songs telling you from a great poetic height how distinguished people conduct romance. The bolero's importance in the Spanish-speaking world for so much of the last century didn't arise just because it promoted close dancing, but because it projected importance: it contained confidence and cultural nobility and a touch of madness.
It's a form that invites remaking, and some excellent postmodern bolero records have been made over the last decade: by the Buena Vista Social club associates Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, by the jazz musicians Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, by the Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés with the Spanish flamenco singer Diego el Cigala. Here is another.
Fernando Álvarez, who died in 2002, was a popular Cuban bolero singer in the 1950s and '60s. Descemer Bueno is a resourceful Cuban songwriter and producer, 43 years younger than Mr. Álvarez. They made this album, ''Sé
Feliz ...'' (or ''Be Happy'') together in Havana shortly before Mr. Álvarez's death. (You can order it online at descarga.com)
Pity we had to wait so long for it. It includes other members of the young Cuban-born musical vanguard, like the pianist Roberto Carcassés and the saxophonist Yovany Terry, and it contains the fateful mood, slow tempos and string arrangement of 1950s boleros. But the record isn't retracing the past. Into his original songs Mr. Bueno has written some string arrangements with striking harmony; he favors acoustic guitars used nearly in bossa nova fashion and slide guitars in modern pop fashion.
In his mid-70s Mr. Álvarez's voice had changed; it was narrower and more delicate, without the authority he had as a younger man. But it was emotionally intact, and he put forth the combination of stoic longing and tragic insecurity in Mr. Bueno's lyrics, many of which are worth savoring. For instance (from ''Dime Si en Sí''): ''Siempre habrá mil formas distintas de amar/sutilezas.'' (''There will always appear a thousand distinct ways of loving -- subtleties.'') Or (from ''Ola''):
Y yo, me invento un personaje que quisiera ser
doy vueltas y más vueltas hasta la ansiedad
y descubro que volar
detrás de un pajarillo libre como tú
no sé.
(''And I, I invent myself a character that I would like to be; I toss and turn until I'm anxious, and discover that I don't know how to fly behind a small free bird like you.'') BEN RATLIFF