Ceciia Zabala

Entrar como una especie de hada madrina, ante la mirada de los presentes. Sacarse las alas y –paradójicamente- comenzar a volar, a viajar. Y no solamente por las imágenes que se reproducían detrás de ella, donde la sombra de la guitarra mejoraba el paisaje.

Un disco netamente instrumental, donde las canciones que tienen letra son cortas, puede ser disfrutado de la misma manera que alguno que tengas canciones de renombre. Y eso, fue lo que trasmitió desde el comienzo Cecilia Zabala, en tierras cordobesas.

EL SILENCIO COMUNICA
De las historias más hermosas que ha podido contar Eduardo Galeano, se encuentra la que comparte una reunión con Juan Carlos Onetti. Allí, el “viejo” le comentó a Eduardo: “Las únicas palabras que merecen existir son aquellas mejores que el silencio”. El pasado viernes, en Espacio 75 en Córdoba, eso se hizo carne. Se hizo cuerpo en Zabala, se hizo palabras solamente cuando ella dijo que era una “celebración de la comunicación, del amor y de algo más”. Pero… ¿Cómo va a haber comunicación, si canta poco? Justamente, porque en ese ambiente no merecía existir ninguna palabra

Azul de Madrugada, La Otra Mitad y el tema homónimo del disco, fueron la bienvenida a un “espacio donde el tiempo corre diferente”. Allí, donde “la búsqueda de belleza” fue un “modo de resistencia”. Y la ejecución para eso, la(s) guitarra(s). Entonces, la belleza al cuadrado: la guitarra que es mujer y la mujer hecha guitarra. Para ese instante, no hacía falta más nada.

Tampoco faltaron cosas a la celebración, ni personajes. Un audio de Julio Cortázar, Los Amantes, era la antesala a Milagro. No parece haber sido elegido así porque sí. Porque Julio, en sus palabras logra eso, y si le sumamos los acordes de Zabala, entonces era todo más posible. Y si después Idea Vilariño, la Cortázar femenina uruguaya, suena con El Amor, entonces ya nada puede evitar lo que dijo al comenzar el show, y lo que sonara antes: Resistencia. Ya eso, no era una noción, gracias a Idea todo se concretaba.

El final de esa primera parte, llegaba con dos temas que explicaban mucho mejor lo que uno pensaba. Por un lado Perezoso, en la guitarra de siete cuerdas, que era la forma de explicar su pasear por el escenario. Por el otro lado Las lleva el viento, que era la única forma de entender la rapidez de sus manos al tocar.

LAS PALABRAS Y LAS SONRISAS
En la segunda parte del show, subió a tocar el bombo y a compartir Juan Iñaki. Recién llegado desde Ecuador, donde el virtuoso artista fue a hacer el rol protagónico, ni más ni menos que de la obra de Victor Hugo, Los Miserables, en el Teatro de Sucre.

Entonces allí, una de las magias de la música. Este encuentro. Ella que de la música clásica, se fue la de raíz popular. Él, que hizo el camino al revés, formando parte de la ópera. Los dos ahí, para cantar Párpado de agua, Despedida, Aguaribay. Para hacernos saber que los géneros son rótulos, que lo importante es lo que se vive y cómo.

Después de tanto, solo quedaba quedarse quietos. Callados. Pensar en el color del silencio, saber que nunca antes lo habíamos pensado de ese modo. Quedaba solo ser abrazados por él. Para ser partes de semejante festejo.

Nota: Juan José Coronell - FolkloreClub

Musician Cecilia Zabala on working with different genres, fellow artists and the local art scene
Cecilia Zabala is a musician who knows her way around many genres. She plays folklore, but her songs are sometimes closer to huyano or chacareras. Her voice sounds like jazz scat, and yet for all the different styles that can be found in her work, her sound is very easily recognizable. Perhaps it’s because she has recorded eight albums, or maybe it’s because she has managed to take her sound all over the world on tours in Latin America, Europe and the US. Be it as it may, Zabala’s music is very much her own and her new record, El color del silencio, is the truest proof of that. Zabala recently talked to the Herald about her album and career.

How do you define your music?
Firstly, it’s music for guitar, but then it’s also singer/songwriter music, and there’s a bit of alternative folklore, as well. I think my new record is the one where that synthesis is clearest. There are pieces meant for guitar that sound like chacareras but there are also songs played on guitars with steel strings that sound a bit like Joni Mitchell, and the voice is also used as an instrument. This album is not only about the guitar accompanying the voice, but about the voice getting in between the lines of what the guitar is doing. I haven’t done a solo album in years, so this is like a return to that intimacy, to the dialogue between the guitar and the voice that was present in my first solo album back in 2007.

What have you learned from recording so many albums with groups and guests?
The experience with guests is amazing because it’s like training to be spontaneous or to solve problems instantly, both when you’re recording and playing live. And developing longer projects with other musicians is very enriching, because you have to work on bringing two worlds together. With Phillippe Baden Powel, for instance, he’s a jazz pianist heavily influenced by a heritage of Brazilian music, and I come from classic guitar and folklore, so we had to work hard to create a new identity, that of the duet.

How did audiences receive your music in Latin America and in Europe?
To me, Latin America is a hotbed of new things, so what I do doesn’t surprise people as much as it does in Europe or in the United States. There’s a lot of creative production going on, maybe because we all live in a constant state of crisis and we make new things as a form of resistance or survival. What happens in Europe is that people expect to hear tango, but then they receive other kinds of music very openly. In the United States, people have asked me if “down there” where I live there are more people doing what I do. To them, my music is out of this world. It’s a place where my music does really well.

You always put on a show during your concerts. What do you have planned for the presentation of your new album?
For these three performances, we planned a two part concert. The first one is the more formal presentation of the album where there’s a visual display and where the whole of the concert goes on with virtually no talking. There are brief interludes that distinguish one song from the next, and it’s all done with special costumes and scenery related to the art cover. I love doing presentations like this. I like communicating not only through music but also through visual art and movements on stage. On the other hand, I want to help those who come to listen to enter this intimate universe where the guitar and the voice talk to each other, particularly on a Thursday night after having had a long day at work. The second part is much more informal. In it, I go through songs from my earlier albums and have a special guest each night. Last Thursday I had Yusa, this Thursday I’ll have Teresa Parodi and for the final concert Miguel Cantini will play with me.

How would you describe the local artistic scene?
I think there’s a very rich production all over the country, but what’s lacking is a strong market or enough places for artists to showcase what they do. We’re all struggling, individually and collectively. I think it’s great that there’s so much being done in genres like folklore or tango, but it is hard to find the space for it.

When and where
June 16 and June 23 at Bebop Club (Moreno 364). Tickets at 130 pesos at www.bebopclub.com.ar. - Buenos Aires Herald