Listen to last week’s episode: “When I Was Seventeen” w/ Hamilton Leithauser and Peter Bauer
Hello -
Instead of a playlist this week, I wanted to share a great collection by an artist who isn’t exactly a household name, but I’m sure just about everyone will fall in love with.
I first heard his music in Before Night Falls, Julian Schnabel’s gorgeous, heartbreaking movie about the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas—one of my favorite movies ever. The soundtrack, like all of Schnabel’s soundtracks, is kind of amazing. I’m not sure who handles the music for his films (maybe Schnabel himself?) but whoever it is has an incredible ear for the strange and beautiful.
Anyway, this week’s artist grew up in the same Havana suburb as Ernesto Lecuona (who I’ve written about before), and started studying piano as a kid. Later on, he was discovered by the great Rita Montaner, who hired him as her pianist. Eventually, he found his way into the spotlight himself and became a star—part singer, part pianist, part something totally his own.
This is a long, beautiful collection that really captures what he does best. The quiet, slow songs stood out to me first—it even sounds like he’s actually crying in a few of them—but the whole collection is fantastic.
