Album Review
Pepesito Reyes
Pepesito Reyes
Yerba Buena / Virgin
[Their first review. They pass unexpectedly near the elephant house at the zoo and recognise one another.]
Compay Segundo: Hey you, Joseito Fernandez!
Joseito Fernandez: Oh - ? It's you! Compay -
Compay: Yes?
Joseito: You speak English.
C : You don't sound pleased.
J: I'm not. What an ugly language.
C: But Joseito, you too, we're both speaking English. We are dead, my friend. In death everyone speaks English.
J: Tch! Why should they?
C: The person who is writing us, she can only write in English, oh, and a little Japanese. Her Japanese is very bad - worse than a child's - but it pleases her and so we must humour her a little.
J: I don't like this 'must.'
C: Well it's said now so that's all there is to it.
J: Tch -
C: Listen. Do you remember Pepesito Reyes?
J: He went to New York.
C: He wrote the piano line to 'Guatanamera.' He played in the Cafe Metropolis in his new North American city. All of these facts are important. Listen -
J: I sang it!
C: You did, Joseito, you sang 'Guatanamera,' didn't I say so inside the cover of La Flores de la Vida?
J: Bravo, the right language at last!
C: It's one of the few sentences she knows, so I can use it. She bought the CD.
J: Now I see why you are humouring her. You know, if you keep referring to an invisible person writing us people will call us Post-Modern.
C: A terrible phrase and in this case I do not think we deserve it.
J: I don't think anyone deserves it.
C: Listen. Pepsito. Yerba Buena have brought out a CD of his and the title is Pepesito Reyes. It's his first solo album. I found it at the library and listened to it. Only once! I could only bear it once! Dreadful, my friend, dreadful! There is no vital fire, no love, it's music you could eat sandwiches to!
J: What kind?
C: Cucumber sandwiches, very plain.
J: I worked with Pepesito for many years. I never pictured him as a sandwich.
C: He is pure cucumber. I have never imagined the piano as a hot instrument - even when it sounds angry it is a cold, hard anger, like icebergs beating against one another - but he robs it of even that chilly fire and everything is smooth as a pond.
J: You music is smooth.
C: I am smooth with brisk edges, I am warm, I am keen. I am keen within myself. Pepesito is keen to give people in New York good digestion. There is a difference.
J: I knew him. You are being harsh.
C: I am. I have only listened to this album once. He plays elegantly, at least. There are no faults. Oh, I wished for faults! Violence!
J: Your eyes are glittering, Compay.
C: My fists are clenched. Oh, that cool elegance! He plays, 'My baby just cares for me' and a woman sings! It's terrible!
