{"id":2832,"date":"2011-07-22T13:24:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinomusiccafe.com\/?p=2832"},"modified":"2022-08-25T11:58:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T15:58:59","slug":"facundo-cabral-was-a-minimalist-latin-troubadour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinomusiccafe.com\/2011\/07\/22\/facundo-cabral-was-a-minimalist-latin-troubadour\/","title":{"rendered":"Facundo Cabral was a Minimalist Latin Troubadour"},"content":{"rendered":"

It amazes me that an artist as popular as Facundo Cabral<\/a> never had a home, and his actual material processions were few. A guy that as a kid was homeless with his mother and siblings, went on to become homeless by choice.<\/p>\n

With the recent passing of Facundo Cabral, I\u2019ve been among the many fans recently reviewing his recordings and Youtube videos. I was recently talking to a friend who is a lifelong fan of Cabral. In that conversation I learned that Facundo truly practiced what we call today \u201cminimalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minimalist Lifestyle of Facundo Cabral<\/h3>\n

Facundo Cabral lived in hotels, or said more accurately, slept in hotels\u2026.his entire life. This is with the exception of\u00a0when he was homeless as a kid. His musical career began by accident coincidentally in a hotel. As he went to find a job there, the hotel people confused him with a substitute performer they were expecting because Facundo was carrying a guitar.<\/p>\n

\"Facundo<\/a>
Facundo Cabral – early days<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From there Facundo Cabral continued his career moving around and sleeping in hotels when he had the money. He loved the freedom to see the world, of meeting new people, of admiring nature.<\/p>\n

Facundo got this from his mother. Sara explained to him their homelessness as actually being \u201crich\u201d, in a certain way. This was because they could live anywhere, as the world was their home. They were not confined to just a single house in one place.<\/p>\n

In his 1994 Live recording \u201cLo Cortez No Quita Lo Cabral\u201d he explains to a fan God\u2019s \u201cinattentiveness\u201d of not giving him as much commercial success as Julio Iglesias. Facundo’s story says \u201cGod knows that Julio needs more money to live than I do; that\u2019s why He gave him more success. But beware, the Lord also knows that I need more freedom than Julio to live, that\u2019s why he made me freer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cabral\u2019s Minimalist Music<\/h3>\n

One thing my friend and I were discussing was that Facundo Cabral did not release new material for many years. It\u2019s like he did his excellent writing in the 1st half of his career. Then, he lived on that from there on.<\/p>\n

His 1st gig, that accidental confusion at that fateful hotel in Argentina, marked the direction of his career. When the hotel staff knocked on his hotel room door, he thought they finally realized the mistake, but that wasn\u2019t the case. The staff came to take him to do the show opening.<\/p>\n

Not knowing what to do in front of the audience, he opted to do the same thing he did when he was \u201ckilling time\u201d with his homeless friends. He shared stories and his philosophy of life from his interpretation of the bible and the poems he liked to read. He did this using his guitar as a musical background.<\/p>\n

The audience at the hotel show loved it so much, that after his performance time was up, they didn\u2019t want to let him go. Then and there, Facundo Cabral realized there was an audience for \u201cstorytellers\u201d. Therefore, he considered himself a storyteller rather than a singer. It was the beginning of a magnificent career.<\/p>\n

In the video below Facundo Cabral tells the story of how he created his most popular song.<\/p>\n