"I think the main thing in life is to believe in what you do and look for a more personal way of doing things. That is achieved by working hard, looking inside oneself. I found myself the day I searched in my roots, in the son, in the rumba. That does not mean that my way is the right way, there are a thousand ways to be authentic".
This is what Edesio Alejandro Rodríguez Salva confessed to Granma, in an interview granted shortly after he was awarded the 2020 National Music Prize. Now, after hearing the news of his death, at the age of 66, in Madrid, where he was receiving medical treatment for cancer, the first thought is that his was a genuine and fruitful path towards authenticity.
Composer, singer, producer and film director, Edesio was born in the Havana neighborhood of San Leopoldo. At the age of 11 he was already playing drums in a rock band, and at 13 he began studying trumpet at the Alejandro García Caturla conservatory, before switching to the guitar specialty, which was what he was really passionate about.
Music and his mother's persistence to provide him with a solid culture were decisive for him, both "managed to get me out of the street environment. I am a good person more than a musician. And that is the most valuable thing."
He made the Cuban people dance to the sound of the chancleta, and with that catchy song Blen Blen that marked an era; he was grateful for the warm reception to those and other songs: "When a person sings you a song that you wrote 20 years ago, it's a wonder. I am grateful for the blessings that the Cuban people give me".
Edesio composed music for theater, television and more than 50 works for cinema. The soundtrack of the film Clandestinos is a staggering one, and in the imagination of all Cubans. For him, it was the movies that told him how they should sound, so he watched them many times before creating the pieces that would support the stories.
As a note from the Cuban Institute of Music points out, the author of Violente -a 1987 rock opera, considered the first in Latin America- was a "great defender of Cuban music and culture, noted for his unyielding experimental vocation, his ability to fuse the most diverse genres and styles, and his unconditional collaboration with the youngest, who always saw him as a reference of authentic Cuban roots and deep commitment to his people."
The support to the Cuban hip hop movement, the Cubadisco Festival Honor Award, the Distinction for National Culture, the Grammy nominations, the selection as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Hollywood, his film Mambo Man... are other milestones of the many of an artistic career that should be revered.
