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A US stanza singer improvises with his daughters

The American teacher, Philip Pasmanick, who fell in love with the stanza long ago, resides in San Francisco, California. He established a love of poetry with ten verse strophes, especially in its oral improvised expression, and decided to make a research of the use of stanzas within the Rumba rhythm.

This is how he himself became a specialist in the field with several theoretical works to his credit. An artist of this modality, he used two plastic containers for his musical accompaniment. In the course of time, he has become a known international figure in oral improvised poetry.

As is known, meetings of this kind have had a remarkable development in Latin countries, right from the traditional use among the Spanish speaking people with stanza and improvised verses, together with the other expressions of the written stanza.

It has been a spontaneous phenomenon within its original roots and that is why it is very important to make a difference from the result of a cultural and populist policy with more political characteristics than cultural as certain voices at certain digital web sites insistently want it to be. Of course, it is not the result of ignorance, which makes it more regrettable- foolishness can be pardoned but not the wicked will of misinterpreting the truths of our today.

But lets go to Pasmanick, the focus of our lines, As I said before, his artistic proposal moves among the improvised oral poetry -known in Cuba as repentismo and other denominations in the other Iberian American regions. With its corresponding condition of immediate art, it is closer to improvisation expressions in other disciplines such as visual arts and music, and far from introspection and intimacy and necessary complicity with the reader and the text that seems to preside in the written poetry in contemporary times, including those conceived with stanzas.

The peculiar thing in Pasmanicks case has been his preference for repentismo towards the wanderings, not to the music with rural origin but with the musical complexity of rumba, more likely found in cities. His preference is therefore, one we have not heard any news of other artists cultivating this expression. Of his researches and productions in this field we may say that his personal digital site, Deciman with a bilingual text, is made with a fine sense of humor, this is how Pasmanick introduces himself with this stanza:
Oh trova stars /incomparable improvisors/ I salute each of you/ with my rumba tune/ Welcome to my world/ my extraordinary blog / it is inter disciplinary/ text, image and sound/ as for me, I only ask/ a rhythmic comment.

Pasmanicks presentations on the stage in several countries have increased over the last few years. His young daughters have joined him in the show business; they are Natalia and Noemi who have showed up as natural counterparts in controversy. The first of them recently accompanied him at the Villanueva Festival in Spain and held "a family controversy in guaguancó" which can be seen on the Internet at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN48jRVdzbw
From this long controversy that Pasmanick sent us, we have transcribed two strophes, where the father and daughter debated on the issue of the validity of hip-hop, take into account that both of them are improvising with stanzas in a foreign language. After a discussion at the very end trying to put an end to all this, he said: Well I know nothing about it/ I do not believe it really matters to me/ I only know how to handle rumba/son montuno and bembé/ but I will tell you are right/ all this makes me happy/ whenever it forms part of all this / rhythm, verb and melody/joining poetry/ with the great black music.

And then she answers back: I also know you are right/ I know it is true/ there is a lot of mediocrity/ and in rap and reggaeton /but these styles are also/ a great source / where the modern trova singer /of oral poetry/ enriches us with a wise verse.

The message sent by Pasmanick, has a final line where he shows his sense of humor. Aware of the fact of people who have been annoyed because Alexis Díaz Pimienta did a version of Don Quijote in stanzas and said that one day he might put the Popol Vuh to verse, then Pasmanick ends his message with a farewell verse:

"Now you have to apologize to me, I have the Popol Vuh in sonnets, I am almost half done, I want to finish before noon and beat Alexis."

Source: By Pedro Péglez González


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