Candido Fabré, the singing machine.
So is Candido Fabré the best Cuban improv singer since Benny Moré? That's certainly what is claimed on his latest CD, "La Habana quiere guarachar contigo" ("Havana wants to go crazy with you"). Fabré himself thinks this is going a bit over the top, but there's no getting away from the fact that Cuba has known nothing else of his kind in the past forty years. Cuban music is based around the singer's capacity to improvise at the moment of the chorus, and this is the key to Fabré's success. While other singers throw out a few lines of their own inspiration, he embarks on great tirades that can last up to a half hour. Singing all the while, of course, with his band keeping the machine going smoothly in the background.

Candido Fabré was born in San Luis, near Santiago, just like Ibrahim Ferrer. It was the director of the Orquesta Original de Manzanillo, Pachy Naranjo, who spotted his talent and asked Fabré to write some songs for this group, which he finally joined in 1983. His skill as a singer and the quality of his compositions have made this provincial charanga (an orchestra with flutes and violins) one of the most popular groups in Cuba. Since 1993 Fabré has played with his own group, recording four albums with them.

Now 42 years old, Fabré admits that he likes concerts that last a long time ("in two hours I've hardly had the chance to warm my voice up") and he spends his spare time writing new songs. he claims to have written about two thousand, and some of them have been recorded and performed by some of the great stars of salsa: Oscar D'Leon, José Alberto El Canario, Celia Cruz, Willy Chirino, to mention just a few. And it is not for nothing that he has a passion for baseball: pitching is his game, sharp, fast and relentless.
François-Xavier GOMEZ, journalist (Libération, Vibrations)

 

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