Yuri Buenventura - Vagabundo
On 12 April 1961, the Russian cosmonaut Youri Gagarin became the
first man to take off for space. In the years following after, tens of
thousands of baby Youris were born across the planet including one in
Buenaventura, a large port on the Pacific coast of Colombia. «It is that part
of the country which has remained closest to its African roots», says Yuri,
who has adopted the name of his home town.
«A drum called a cununo is played there, that is almost identical to a
similar instrument used in Mali. In Buenaventura, the memory of dark
brown slaves who grabbed their freedom by escaping from the plantations
is still deeply anchored.»
For as long as Yuri can remember, his home town has always been
steeped in music. «You can listen to the salsa even in the hospitals. Not only
in the waiting room, but in the operating room as well » His father, a music
and theatre teacher, handed down to him his passion for the arts. But it is
not towards music that he turned his young career … but to marine biology.
«When studying, I took part in a project subsidised by the Europeans. One
day they just disappeared taking the funds with them. I said to myself
that the only way to avoid being despoiled a further time was to gain
command over the mechanisms of the economy.»
Yuri, the idealist therefore found himself in Paris and enrolled at the
faculty of economics where he met French people of course but also his
Latin-American brothers: Chileans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Argentineans,
Brazilians… «I had a job as a student in a fast food place. One day I almost
broke my neck rushing down a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs I
started thinking: “Did I come to Europe to serve chips ? I think I’ve got
better things to share with the French.» And to share them he used music.
He who was brought up on New-York salsa under the Fania label, the
politically committed songs of the Chilean singer Violeta Parra, the music of
Joan Manuel Serrat - the Catalan, and of Pablo Milanes - the Cuban,
naturally found a place alongside his Hispanic musician friends. He played in
the subway. Took part in the Latin-American fever which took grip on Paris
in the early 90’s, started singing with Grupo Caïman, became chorister for
Mambomania. And forgot his studies in economics.
Within a few months, Yuri became one of the most highly-rated salsa
singers in Latino Paris, whose epicentre is a dancing centre in Belleville
called La Java, a former temple of popular accordion music. «I think back
to this time with some nostalgia, confides Yuri. The public was highly
connoisseur, both very demanding and warmly welcoming. I moved with
musicians who were important in my training. From Camilo Azuquita, I learnt
elegance, class. With Ernesto «Tito» Puentes, I discovered the beauty of a
brass section. The Venezuelan Orlando Poleo introduced me to the drums
and gave me understanding of African culture.»
As member of the Orquesta Chaworo directed by Poleo, one of the
world’s best respected conga players, Yuri climbed a further rung. In July
1996, their concert at the Tempo Latino festival in Vic-Fezensac remains
engraved in the memories of the five thousand spectators who filled the
arenas. «At one moment, remembers Yuri, Orlando was playing a solo, the
condensation from his perspiration gave him a vaporous halo, it was almost
supernatural. I had to turn my back to the public as I was crying so much,
it was so magnificent.»
Yuri Buenaventura could have stayed with this orchestra that was
swiftly gaining fame. But his mind was already turned to another project:
his own album. He went back to Colombia to record, in several different
sessions as and when he could find the money and «with the utmost
naivety», he admits today. It would need the pen of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
to narrate the wild epic of his record, straggling between dashed hopes,
rip-offs, misunderstandings and restarts. In the end, Yuri found himself
riddled with debts, faced with the impossibility of publishing his record. «I
was ruined, had no way to turn. I had decided to return to Buenaventura
and change profession. To drive a bus taxi. A nice job: you can listen to
salsa all day long, you meet people, listen to their joys, their troubles …»
But while Yuri was hitting rock bottom, in Paris people were beginning
to listen to a strange version of «Ne me quitte pas». Remy Kolpa Kopoul, at
Radio Nova, was enthusiastic about this exhilarating remake of one of the
saddest songs in the French repertoire. The rest of the story we all know.
Yuri found a publisher, then a label, brought out his record and stepped
inside the history book: he became the first salsa singer to obtain a gold
disc in France.
The second album with the palindrome title («Yo Soy», «I am») came
to light between Paris, Cali and Porto Rico. Published in Spring 1999, it is a
display of daring and diversity: a duo with Faudel, the participation of the
fabulous pianist Papo Lucca, repeats from Elton John, la Mano Negra,
Michel Legrand. A vast mixture of tributes paid and different cultures,
perhaps a little too heterogeneous.
The third brands itself with its very title: Vagabundo has a liking for
through paths, unusual encounters, but it is less dilute than its
predecessor. Orthodox salsa (the part recorded in Porto Rico) cohabits
with hybrid experiences: a cross between tango and the tropics.
In San Juan, Yuri was joined by some of the best musicians on the
island: Roberto Roena, leader of the orchestra Appolo Sound, several
members of El Gran Combo, including the chorister singer Jerry Rivas, and
a distinguished guest singer for two duos: Cheo Feliciano, one of the
mythical voices from Fania All Stars.
«Over there, explains Yuri, you meet fabulous musicians along with
technology and know-how. Good hard work can be done quickly. Vagabundo
came into existence with no suffering as if it just flowed naturally. Before
I sometimes had to lock myself away, to blank out everything, chuck
everyone out of the studio and do the recording with the assistant, the one
who brought the coffee. This time everything was different. It is a
transparent disc.»
The Parisian part gave birth to several pieces in which the tango
bandoneon (played by Per Arne Glorvigen, a virtuoso… who is Norwegian)
encounters the Caribbean rhythms and percussions of the Argentinean
Minino Garay, creating a strange atmosphere that is deeply original. «But
after all, argues Yuri, the tango descends from the habanera, it is also
Black music…»
«My ambition is to bring out music which makes you dance and think.
Music which leaves a trace » summarizes Yuri. He has not given up his
desire to transmit the values of his own continent («Mi America»), his
mission to make the history of his people known, to make the words of the
poets heard (with a magnificent tribute to Pablo Neruda). And to invent a
place where cultures can dialogue and bring mutual enrichment.
Yuri Buenaventura concludes: «One day, Jacques Brel gave up
everything to go and live in Polynesia. He was searching for the south. The
South, in other words me.»