In Havana, Cuba, the music flows, the waves roll and never stop.
Seeing Zhou Dong singing and dancing salsa on the streets of Havana, I can't help but wonder what chemistry would have happened if he had come to Havana 20 years ago and met Segundo, known as the "soul of Cuban music".
Will the old man talk to Zhou Dong about music or love? Will he be taught the skills of the seven-string guitar, or the tricks of the bubble girl?
Pixabay, a street musician ©in Havana
In 2000, 21-year-old Jay Chou released his first album.
This year, the 93-year-old legendary Cuban musician Segundo embarked on his world tour.
During the tour, on the plane at an altitude of 10,000 meters, he gushed inspiration and wrote a new song.
Segundo is like Havana, with an old body, a young soul.
In the middle is Ségundo, Cuba's "national treasure"
Segundo began to learn guitar from an early age, and playing it was not too addictive, simply inventing a new type of guitar with seven strings.
Later, he began to write his own songs, writing his debut at the age of 15, but only became famous in his 40s, and became popular in Latin America.
His musical style is a warm and lively "ode" developed in the countryside of eastern Cuba, and Zhou Dongxin's song is in this way. There is the rhythmic vibrancy of African music, combined with European guitar chords.
In the 1950s, he became a musician at the famous Buena Vista Social Club. The club brought together a group of musical geniuses at the time and represented the golden age of Cuban music.
However, the cuban revolution broke out in 1959 and the Scenic Social Club was dissolved. The musicians became ordinary laborers, and Segundo became a worker in a state-run cigar factory.
During his years in the cigar factory, he also occasionally participated in some performances, "I worked as a worker and a musician at the same time, and it was not difficult. Cigarettes are as important to me as music and as unnecessary as my life! He said.
In the 1990s, Cuban society gradually became open. American musician Rai Kood, who pulled up director Wim Wenders (the one who made "Under the Berlin Sky"), went to Cuba together to do a particularly cool thing.
They sought out old musicians, national treasures scattered around Cuban folklore, including Segundo, gathered them together, recorded a now-classic record, and gave a popular performance at Carnegie Hall in the United States.
In the recording studio, the old man wore a white top hat, smoked a cigar, and looked like a yappie, "I was a very romantic person back then, and no girl could refuse me." "I have five children, I'm going to be in love, and I want to have a sixth." "In my time, music was more romantic! At that time, BOLERO and SERENADES were even sexier than SALSA today! That's the most effective and elegant way to seduce a woman. ”
Wenders made the whole process into a documentary, named after the club that year, Buena Vista Social Club.
The film caused a sensation around the world. After 40 years, the world has embraced Cuban music again.
Luckily, the hug happened; unfortunately, it came a little too late, and most of the "old babes" were already in their seventies and eighties.
They were like stars at the end of their lives, carrying out a "supernova explosion" that illuminated the entire world.
A few years later, several legendary musicians died.
On July 13, 2003, Segundo died, failing to fulfill his wish to play music until he was 100 years old.
On the day of the funeral, almost the whole city of Havana was on the move, and people sang his popular song "Chan Chan" to bid him farewell.
Tomb ©of Segundo pixabay
The calendar flips back to 2000.
Shortly after Jay Chou's first album came out, Segundo released his last album.
In the preface, he wrote:
"I thought those things would never happen again at my age, but to my surprise, those flowers in my life bloomed when I was in my nineties. As long as a person still has a heartbeat, he will never be too old. ”