Passion had arrived before. They say that Tuinucú, was the town of his father’s family, a town with the sound of a railway and the taste of molasses, the town where he used a tape recorder to register and set up voices. They say that he would watch adults, turn off the radio and put on his own creations. There were even imaginary programs. That’s what people say.
He was baptized as “The radio boy” because, at the age of 14, he was already in the studios of Radio Sancti Spiritus and was at the time, the youngest producer of Cuban radio. Now, after almost a quarter of a century of professional work, his fascination remains intact
A first-class musicalizing specialist and sound producer, wherever he puts his hand (his ear), the work simply grows. Rather than the many awards he has received, it is the commitment in this daily work that has earned him the respect of all. Whether a musical, informative or dramatized space; whether a live or recorded broadcast; whether within the recording studio or outdoors, Jailer’s versatility stands up to any test.
You just have to ask those who eagerly await for him to return from his holidays, ask his students from Jatibonico or Cabaiguán… Where did he carry out the premiering broadcast for that radio center? You may also ask those, who from other parts of the country, claim for him. Ask those who work with him, like Lisandra Gómez Guerra, one of the most talented professionals in the new breed of Cuban journalists:
“Jailer sees and feels through sounds, hence the total passion he casts over each of his productions. He is capable of interpreting sensations concealed in the melodies, although for the great majority they go unnoticed. Therefore, he only needs a few seconds to evaluate the quality of a sound material. If his life were reduced to one only necessity, Jailer would live only need the sense of sounds to live.”
I envision him sitting in front of the keyboard… concentrated.
Maybe the news program Al día is beginning, maybe he is recalling his teacher Iván Pérez, or going over the music in his mind, in search of the exact time, the perfect coupling. May his own words explain it to us: -Once I was asked why sound plays a major role in radio and I answered that sound is everything because if we use it in the right way, it is capable of taking us to a specific time and place, to one century or another, from one sensation to another. For example, in a novel, just by setting the right environment, the listener is able to immediately visualize the scene, and whether it is vintage or current. -When we place a sad or happy theme, or simply when we put a cricket sound, we all realize that it is night time.
When in a program we talk about Girón and the theme played is masterfully interpreted by Sara González ( Girón, la Victoria ), the related images reach us as struck by arrows. Sound has that power and radio has it too.
Jailer Yudel Cañizares de la Paz.. (that’s the name by which he was registered on his identity card ), has taken the radio home and everywhere. He insists on, reiterates, and underlines the essential nature of teamwork, and has even been a teacher to his own wife, Elizabel Gómez Abreu, whom he managed to involve in his universe of sounds.
Everyone remembers the report in which the protagonist role was taken over by the work of Cuban doctors in Sucre, in the state of Miranda, in the homeland of Bolívar. The duet Lisandra Gómez-Jailer Cañizares dealt with a work that developed remotely, based on the networks, and one in the leading roles was Lidia de la Paz, mother of our interviewee. Those few minutes denoted great emotional associations.
“I really enjoy editing with journalists, for me, it is awesome and very difficult. Sometimes, it is only with ambient sounds that we can convey the image to the listener, while on other occasions, several sound resources, like the environment, music, or the effects must be combined, to obtain the result that is sought. Sound, when used correctly, contributes a lot to the development of journalistic genres.”
“Sound in radio is something mystical if it could be said that way. As I tell my colleagues, we give the listener the scenes of life through sound.”
Por Reinaldo Cedeño Pineda / Traducción Gilda Gil
