Rubén Blades: Reflecting on Music, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Issues

On camera, Rubén Blades is seen moving things around in his New York studio. “I’m trying to bring some order to my messy area of ​​books and clutter that I have,” he says.

He has a hat and talks non-stop. That is another of his many virtues, always saying interesting and profound things and speaking with that singing voice that captivates.

On Sunday, July 16, he will turn 75 and although he says that he does not like to celebrate very much, there will be an event that will mark the date: “I am releasing the Siembra album after 45 years, on my birthday, and I sang it with the same tones from that time, and with the same instrumentation and everything. What a pleasure to have the opportunity to do that again.”

Blades does not boast, but he knows that he has done things well, faithful to a musical genre, to some musicians, to some stories and lyrics, to his audience.

And he returns to Colombia to sing in ‘Viva la salsa’, a concert that will include, in addition to Blades, Óscar D’León, Grupo Niche, Tony Vega, Papo Lucca & La Sonora Ponceña, Los Hermanos Lebrón, Maelo Ruiz and Yan Collazo.

The concerts will be on July 28 in Medellín, on the 29th in Bogotá, on August 4 in Cali and on the 5th in Barranquilla.

Almost always our followers get old, like us, and they disappear

“I go with the joy of being alive, of still being able to work at the level that one is used to, of being able to be accompanied by people who are more talented than one and who help one and make me look very good”, he affirms.

“And also having the opportunity to be in front of a renewed audience, which is something extraordinary and I really appreciate it and that not many artists have. Almost always our followers get old, like us, and they disappear, but not in these cases, people go, repeat the songs, they know them, they are with us. They are very, very, very special moments, that make me happy like you have no idea, they confirm that I was right when I wrote what I wrote despite all the problems I encountered because of it. I see that time proved me right, right?

Blades spoke with EL TIEMPO.

What music are you listening to these days, teacher?

I actually listen to the same thing, that is, suddenly I start looking for Héctor Lavoe with Willie Colón on YouTube, or listen to the things we did years ago with Seis del Solar and that I hadn’t heard for a long time, but in reality I listen to the music by Norwegian Grieg, which I love. I don’t hear new music every day. Actually, I spend more time reading.

And what do you like to read?

I read everything, that is, I’m reading a little more fiction now because in reality the only one I read was that of Gabo and Camus, but I like history much more. Now I’m reading Richard Nixon, Ho Chi Minh’s biography, even flying saucers. Another thing that I’m starting to try to understand a little bit is artificial intelligence (AI).

And what do you think of this new universe?

There are things that scare me, for example, a friend of mine when he talked to me about the matter told me that artificial intelligence could suddenly create with a certain degree of truthfulness something that had not happened. He asked me what I would have liked to have done in my life and I told him to have talked with Albert Camus, a writer who impressed me from a young age. So, the guy appeals to artificial intelligence: information about Camus and his books, information about my songs and he says ‘make me an interview between these two’, and suddenly an interview appears as if we were talking.

Giving up imagination in exchange for the advantage offered by these technological advances is extremely worrying

I found that interesting from the point of view that the AI ​​starts to make thematic connections, for example, The Plague with Blue Dog Eyes, and suddenly you have a conversation that never happened, which is fascinating, but also scares me. . It is that the other problem is the loss of imagination, what you do now is that if you have to write an essay, you go to the AI ​​and give it two or three little dates and it comes out. And that of giving up imagination in exchange for the advantage offered by these technological advances is extremely worrying.

What advantages do you think it has?

On the one hand, advances in medicine. And we can, for example, look for a solution for the homeless, which is what we have to do to put an end to the problem of the tragedy of people with nowhere to live. And that, since he has no political party or interests, you give him all the information that exists and help with this drama, but there is no will to apply it. Suddenly he tells you: ‘Look, this is what needs to be done to solve the social security problem, how are we going to incorporate the 47 percent of people who work in the informal sector, how do we get these people to contribute’. The information is there and the AI ​​can speak any language. It could all be extremely valuable, but it’s also worrisome because we’re so messy.

Rubén Blades spoke with EL TIEMPO about current issues such as irregular migration through the Darién jungle, which borders his native Panama.

Photo:

Courtesy Rubén Blades

There is an issue that unites us and affects Panama and Colombia: the passage of migrants through the Darién. What do you think of this, that it is so hard, so horrible?

The first thing to understand is that people leave their country not because they want to, but because they have to. And they are not only from Colombia and Venezuela, people are arriving from Africa, from many other latitudes and societies, and you have to know what the real reasons are that force them to do so, even to die. Not only do they die, it makes their family die, their children. There is something else, they come looking for better conditions and where they arrive or where they go, where it is also difficult to have a good job, the reaction will be hostility, not solidarity, which entails a political problem and their response may not appear because The one in government doesn’t mind being asked why he gives options to an African and not to the people who live there and who have many needs. And now it turns out that there are German companies that are considering the Darien route as a tourist attraction. Terrible.

There is a person that is on my mind a lot and it is her grandmother Emma. I feel that she was one of the most wonderful women in her life, as was her feminine environment…

My grandmother was a school of learning and unlearning. When you are four or five years old and a person who answers you when you ask questions and with the ability to assimilate the answers, well imagine, that was for me. She taught me to think, to read and to write at home because she was a teacher. I came to school reading and I was super advanced compared to the others. Grandma also taught my dad and uncle Roque at home, and she sent the women to school because she didn’t have the money to pay for the four children. I asked her why she did it herself and she told me: ‘Women need formal education because you men control the world and we need more education and more formality.’

It’s in her heart, all of her.

Yes. I remember that around the year 54, 55, I entered my grandmother’s room and she was on the floor practicing yoga. I asked her what that was and she explained that yoga was important for breathing and other things, and in the last 30 years it has become very important and I was familiar with it because my grandmother taught me.

What happened to your memories?

I delivered the manuscript months ago, what happens is that several things happened: the pandemic and that I am one of those who review, review, review and review.

Like García Márquez, his friend.

Yes, that’s why we didn’t make the record together, when I proposed it to him he said: ‘Rubén, I’d love to, but no, we never finished because I review, review, review and review’, like me.

Will the book be released in English and Spanish?

That’s right. I wrote it in Spanish and when I read the first two chapters of the translation they seemed like an egg without salt, that is, very formal. So this is being worked on. Although I think that possibly the most popular version will be the narrated one.

For sure yes.

I do the audiobook, and it’s my voice, and then I feel much better when I hear myself, because sometimes you write something and it’s better as it sounds. It’s one thing to be told, ‘hey son of a bitch’ and for someone to tell you that you don’t know who is, and another for a friend to tell you. I hope it comes out next year, because there is a row of publications.

In that last time I spoke more with Mercedes. With his illness they kept him very calm

Do you remember when was the last time you saw García Márquez?

I don’t remember the year, but he was still clear. You have no idea how many times I have tried to remember when it was, but no, I can’t, I can’t locate that moment, I think it could have been in Mexico, right? I think it was at the National Auditorium, he came to a concert, around 2003, around there. Remember that I started working in the government from 2004 to 2009 and the conversations I have with Gabo are in Panama, in that period I think I saw him once, at lunch, a matter of haste, I arrived late. In that last time I spoke more with Mercedes. With her illness they kept him very calm. In 2004 we did talk because he called me so that I could present History of my sad whores in Panama. He couldn’t go, so I represented him, although I think people were disappointed. For me it was an honor, but I told him: ‘Gabo, if you don’t know anything else about me, it’s because they hung me from a stick.’

How did you find out about his death?

I’m at home and the phone rings at five in the morning and they tell me that Cheo Feliciano, the singer, my lifelong idol, has just died. I started crying and thought: ‘What a horrible day.’ I went to do some laps and when I return in the afternoon they tell me that Gabo died.

What is your favorite Gabo book?

I knew Gabo before the Nobel, that’s why I was never impressed by One Hundred Years of Solitude as the greatest, it’s a tremendous book, but I told him that The Story of a Castaway, the chronicle he wrote for El Espectador, It was the chronicle of chronicles. He didn’t argue with me much because he was a journalist all his life.

Hay Festival | Rubén Blades in conversation with Mábel LaraThe Panamanian artist, a living legend of salsa, talks about his career in music.