Carlos Manuel Puebla (11 September 1917, Manzanillo – 12 July 1989, Havana) was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs. Born into a modest family, he did several types of manual jobs during his youth (carpenter, mechanic, sugarcane worker, shoemaker), but quickly became interested in music, and especially in the guitar. He learned how to play the instrument by himself, but he did study harmony and theory of music. He began composing during the 1930s, and met with a certain amount of popularity in his native city. He recorded with his group Los Tradicionales, formed in 1953. From 1962 he was a regular performer in La Bodeguita del medio, a bar-restaurant in Old Havana which was a favourite haunt of Cuban and foreign intellectuals. Politically he stood beside Fidel Castro before the 1959 Revolution. In 1961, he went on tour in several countries with his musicians. His music, as well as his political activity, turned his concerts into a success. He was thenceforth called El Cantor de la Revolución (the singer of the revolution) and other world tours followed. More than an ambassador for Cuban music, he was an ambassador for Cuba. In 1965, the night after Fidel Castro's speech announcing Che Guevara's departure from the government, Puebla, seized by passion, composed what would become his most celebrated work, "Hasta Siempre, Comandante", a true declaration of love for and hope in Che. On 12 July 1989, he died in Havana after a long illness. His ashes were transferred to the cemetery of his native city five years later. A plaque there reads: "Yo soy ésto que soy, un simple trovador que canta" ("I am what I am, a simple troubadour who sings").
01- Hasta Siempre 02- Amorosa Guajira 03- Y En Eso Llegó Fidel 04- De Cuba Traigo un Cantar 05- Soy del Pueblo 06- Aurora 07- Canto a Camilo 08- Retorna 09- La Caimanera 10- Y Tú Qué Has Hecho 11- La Mujer 12- La Tarde 13- Que Alegrón 14- Ojos Malignos 15- Cambio, Cambio 16- Secretos Pasionales 17- Comité de Defensa 18- Mujer Perjura 19- Todos Los Caminos 20- Aquella Boca 21- Canto por Todos los Muertos 22- La Cuarentena 23- David y Goliath 24- Paz con Dignidad
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez (born November 29, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños) is a Cuban musician-songwriter, leader of the nueva trova movement. He is known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as "Ojalá", "Playa Girón", and many others. Rodríguez, musically and politically, is a symbol of the Latin American left wing. Several of his songs praise the revolutionary figure Che Guevara and he is also currently deputy in the Cuban parliament. His lyrics are notably introspective. His songs combine romanticism, love (even eroticism), revolutionary politics, and idealism. The entire work of Silvio Rodriguez offers an intimate and introspective window into the life cycle of the artist. Silvio stands out in the Spanish-speaking world for the intimacy and subtlety of his lyrics, as well as for his acoustic melodies and "chord picking." He is particularly popular amongst intellectual circles of the left in Latin America and Spain. He has also often served as Cuban cultural emissary in events of solidarity. After more than 40 years of artistic work, Rodríguez has now written a vast number of songs and poems (said to be between 500 and more than one thousand), many of which have never been set to music and probably never will be. Although his musical knowledge has been continuously increasing (counting among his teachers the famous Cuban composer Leo Brouwer), he is more widely praised for the poetry in his songs than for the accompanying music. His lyrics are a staple of leftist culture throughout the whole Spanish-speaking world, and he has been banned from the media during several of the dictatorial regimes that ruled Latin America in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
01- Te Doy Una Canción 02- Canción del Elegido 03- Playa Girón 04- En Estos Días 05- Pequeña Serenata Diurna 06- Óleo de Una Mujer con Sombrero 07- Ya No Te Espero 08- Ojalá 09- ¿Qué Hago Ahora? 10- Resúmen de Noticias 11- En el Claro de la Luna 12- Río 13- Esta Canción 14- A Dónde Van 15- Días y Flores 16- La Era Está Pariendo un Corazón 17- Esto No Es Una Elegía 18- Debo Partirme En Dos 19- Madre 20- Sueño con Serpientes 21- Historia de la Silla 22- El Colibrí
