»“Buenaventura became the first salsa singer in France to go gold ... audacious explorations of his Latin American heritage and its African roots.”« Mondomix

Yuri Buenventura - Vagabundo

On 12 April 1961, the Russian cosmonaut Youri Gagarin became the first man to take off for space. In the years following after, tens of thousands of baby Youris were born across the planet including one in Buenaventura, a large port on the Pacific coast of Colombia. «It is that part of the country which has remained closest to its African roots», says Yuri, who has adopted the name of his home town.
«A drum called a cununo is played there, that is almost identical to a similar instrument used in Mali. In Buenaventura, the memory of dark brown slaves who grabbed their freedom by escaping from the plantations is still deeply anchored.»

For as long as Yuri can remember, his home town has always been steeped in music. «You can listen to the salsa even in the hospitals. Not only in the waiting room, but in the operating room as well » His father, a music and theatre teacher, handed down to him his passion for the arts. But it is not towards music that he turned his young career … but to marine biology. «When studying, I took part in a project subsidised by the Europeans. One day they just disappeared taking the funds with them. I said to myself that the only way to avoid being despoiled a further time was to gain command over the mechanisms of the economy.»

Yuri, the idealist therefore found himself in Paris and enrolled at the faculty of economics where he met French people of course but also his Latin-American brothers: Chileans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Argentineans, Brazilians… «I had a job as a student in a fast food place. One day I almost broke my neck rushing down a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs I started thinking: “Did I come to Europe to serve chips ? I think I’ve got better things to share with the French.» And to share them he used music. He who was brought up on New-York salsa under the Fania label, the politically committed songs of the Chilean singer Violeta Parra, the music of Joan Manuel Serrat - the Catalan, and of Pablo Milanes - the Cuban, naturally found a place alongside his Hispanic musician friends. He played in the subway. Took part in the Latin-American fever which took grip on Paris in the early 90’s, started singing with Grupo Caïman, became chorister for Mambomania. And forgot his studies in economics.

Within a few months, Yuri became one of the most highly-rated salsa singers in Latino Paris, whose epicentre is a dancing centre in Belleville called La Java, a former temple of popular accordion music. «I think back to this time with some nostalgia, confides Yuri. The public was highly connoisseur, both very demanding and warmly welcoming. I moved with musicians who were important in my training. From Camilo Azuquita, I learnt elegance, class. With Ernesto «Tito» Puentes, I discovered the beauty of a brass section. The Venezuelan Orlando Poleo introduced me to the drums and gave me understanding of African culture.»
As member of the Orquesta Chaworo directed by Poleo, one of the world’s best respected conga players, Yuri climbed a further rung. In July 1996, their concert at the Tempo Latino festival in Vic-Fezensac remains engraved in the memories of the five thousand spectators who filled the arenas. «At one moment, remembers Yuri, Orlando was playing a solo, the condensation from his perspiration gave him a vaporous halo, it was almost supernatural. I had to turn my back to the public as I was crying so much, it was so magnificent.»

Yuri Buenaventura could have stayed with this orchestra that was swiftly gaining fame. But his mind was already turned to another project: his own album. He went back to Colombia to record, in several different sessions as and when he could find the money and «with the utmost naivety», he admits today. It would need the pen of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to narrate the wild epic of his record, straggling between dashed hopes, rip-offs, misunderstandings and restarts. In the end, Yuri found himself riddled with debts, faced with the impossibility of publishing his record. «I was ruined, had no way to turn. I had decided to return to Buenaventura and change profession. To drive a bus taxi. A nice job: you can listen to salsa all day long, you meet people, listen to their joys, their troubles …»

But while Yuri was hitting rock bottom, in Paris people were beginning to listen to a strange version of «Ne me quitte pas». Remy Kolpa Kopoul, at Radio Nova, was enthusiastic about this exhilarating remake of one of the saddest songs in the French repertoire. The rest of the story we all know. Yuri found a publisher, then a label, brought out his record and stepped inside the history book: he became the first salsa singer to obtain a gold disc in France.
The second album with the palindrome title («Yo Soy», «I am») came to light between Paris, Cali and Porto Rico. Published in Spring 1999, it is a display of daring and diversity: a duo with Faudel, the participation of the fabulous pianist Papo Lucca, repeats from Elton John, la Mano Negra, Michel Legrand. A vast mixture of tributes paid and different cultures, perhaps a little too heterogeneous.




The third brands itself with its very title: Vagabundo has a liking for through paths, unusual encounters, but it is less dilute than its predecessor. Orthodox salsa (the part recorded in Porto Rico) cohabits with hybrid experiences: a cross between tango and the tropics.
In San Juan, Yuri was joined by some of the best musicians on the island: Roberto Roena, leader of the orchestra Appolo Sound, several members of El Gran Combo, including the chorister singer Jerry Rivas, and a distinguished guest singer for two duos: Cheo Feliciano, one of the mythical voices from Fania All Stars.
«Over there, explains Yuri, you meet fabulous musicians along with technology and know-how. Good hard work can be done quickly. Vagabundo came into existence with no suffering as if it just flowed naturally. Before I sometimes had to lock myself away, to blank out everything, chuck everyone out of the studio and do the recording with the assistant, the one who brought the coffee. This time everything was different. It is a transparent disc.»

The Parisian part gave birth to several pieces in which the tango bandoneon (played by Per Arne Glorvigen, a virtuoso… who is Norwegian) encounters the Caribbean rhythms and percussions of the Argentinean Minino Garay, creating a strange atmosphere that is deeply original. «But after all, argues Yuri, the tango descends from the habanera, it is also Black music…»
«My ambition is to bring out music which makes you dance and think. Music which leaves a trace » summarizes Yuri. He has not given up his desire to transmit the values of his own continent («Mi America»), his mission to make the history of his people known, to make the words of the poets heard (with a magnificent tribute to Pablo Neruda). And to invent a place where cultures can dialogue and bring mutual enrichment.
Yuri Buenaventura concludes: «One day, Jacques Brel gave up everything to go and live in Polynesia. He was searching for the south. The South, in other words me.»