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Trova
''Trova'' is a style of Cuban popular music originating in the 19th century. Trova was created by itinerant musicians known as ''trovadores'' who travelled around Cuba's Oriente province, especially Santiago de Cuba, and earned their living by singing and playing the guitar. According to nueva trova musician Noel Nicola, Cuban trovadors sang original songs or songs written by contemporaries, accompanied themselves on guitar, and aimed to feature music that had a poetic sensibility. This definition fits best the singers of boleros, and less well the Afrocubans singing funky sones (El Guayabero) or even guaguancós and abakuá ( Chicho Ibáñez). It rules out, perhaps unfairly, singers who accompanied themselves on the piano. ''Trova'' musicians have played an important part in the evolution of Cuban popular music. Collectively, they have been prolific as composers, and have provided a start for many later musicians whose career lay in larger groupings. Socially, they reached ...
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Music Of Cuba
The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European (especially Spanish) music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional music in the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century. Since the 19th-century Cuban music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world. It has been perhaps the most popular form of regional music since the introduction of recording technology. Cuban music has contributed to the development of a wide variety of genres and musical styles around the globe, most notably in Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Eu ...
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Bolero
Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has been called the "quintessential Latin American romantic song of the twentieth century". Unlike the simpler, thematically diverse '' canción'', bolero did not stem directly from the European lyrical tradition, which included Italian opera and canzone, popular in urban centers like Havana at the time. Instead, it was born as a form of romantic folk poetry cultivated by a new breed of troubadour from Santiago de Cuba, the ''trovadores''. Pepe Sánchez is considered the father of this movement and the author of the first bolero, "Tristezas", written in 1883. Originally, boleros were sung by individual ''trovadores'' while playing guitar. Over time, it became common for trovadores to play in groups as ''dúos'', ''tríos'', ''cuartetos'', ...
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Son Cubano
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section (bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin. Around 1909 the son reached Havana, where the first recordings were made in 1917. This marked the start of its expansion throughout the island, becoming Cuba's most popular and influential genre. While early groups had between three and five members, during the 1920s the ''sexteto'' ( sextet) became the genre's primary format. By the 1930s, many bands had incorporated a trumpet, becoming ''septetos'', and in the 1940s a larger type of ensemble featuring congas and piano be ...
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Son (music)
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section (bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin. Around 1909 the son reached Havana, where the first recordings were made in 1917. This marked the start of its expansion throughout the island, becoming Cuba's most popular and influential genre. While early groups had between three and five members, during the 1920s the ''sexteto'' ( sextet) became the genre's primary format. By the 1930s, many bands had incorporated a trumpet, becoming ''septetos'', and in the 1940s a larger type of ensemble featuring congas and piano became t ...
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Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay (born Antonio Gumersindo Garay García; Santiago de Cuba, 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968) was a Cuban trova musician. He was taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the ''four greats of the trova''. He was of Spanish and Arawakan descent. Life & work Garay was the most outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been sung and recorded many times. ''Perla marina'', ''Adios a La Habana'', ''Mujer bayamesa'', ''El huracan y la palma'', ''Guarina'' and many others are now part of Cuba's heritage. Garay was also musically illiterate – in fact, he only taught himself the alphabet at 16 – but in his case not only were scores transcribed by others, but there are recordings as well. For a long period he sang in a duo with his eldest son Guarionex; he had two other sons and a daughter, and gave them all Indian names. In the 1890s Garay got involved in the Cuban War of Independence, and decided a stay in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican ...
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Alberto Villalón
Alberto Villalón Morales (Santiago de Cuba, 7 June 1882 – Havana, 16 July 1955) was one of the greatest musicians in the Cuban trova style. He was the only one of the 'four greats' of the trova to come from a well-to-do family. Villalón and his sister América studied guitar with Pepe Sánchez, the father of the trova movement. Later, he studied classical guitar to achieve a really excellent technique. He composed his first canciones and boleros at fourteen, and moved to Havana in 1900. In 1907 he recorded on ''Edison'' cylinders. In 1908 he formed the Cuarteto Villalón with Adolfo Colombo (tenor), Claudio García (baritone), Emilio Reinoso (mandolin), and Alberto Villalón (guitar). Colombo and García were regular members of the ''Teatro Alhambra'' company; Colombo was the most recorded singer of the age.Díaz Ayala, Cristóbal 1994. ''Cuba canta y baila: discografía de la música cubana 1898–1925''. p193 et seq. A difference between Villalón and the other early tr ...
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Pepe Sánchez (trova)
José "Pepe" Sánchez (Santiago de Cuba, 19 March 1856 – 3 January 1918), was a Cuban musician, singer and composer. He is known as the father of the ''trova'' style and the creator of the Cuban bolero. Sánchez was originally a tailor, and later the co-owner of a copper mine, and the representative in Santiago de Cuba of a cloth manufacturer in Kingston, Jamaica. He moved in upper and middle class circles in Santiago despite being a mulatto; his work as a businessman and musician brought him recognition and acceptance. Pepe had some experience in ''bufo'' theatre, but had no formal training in music. With remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost for ever, though some two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples wrote them down. His first bolero, ''Tristezas'', is still remembered today. He also created advertisement jingles before radio was born. He was the model and teac ...
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El Guayabero
Faustino Oramas Osorio (4 June 1911 – 27 March 2007), better known as El Guayabero, was a Cuban trova singer, tres guitarist and composer. Most of his repertoire consisted of sones and guaracha-sones, many with double entendres in the lyrics. His composition "Candela" gained international fame due to its inclusion in the ''Buena Vista Social Club'' album. Career When he was 15 years old he began playing the maracas as part of a septet of sones known as ''La Tropical'' made up by some friends with the purpose of enjoying and performing at the country dances. During the 1940s, he began his career as composer with "Tumbaíto", a song that was included in Libertad Lamarque's repertoire and title he used as an alias for some time. Afterwards, he composed two sones, "Como vengo este año" and "El Guayabero". He composed the latter when he was performing as tres player in the ''Trovadores Holguineros'' ensemble. Pacho Alonso, the well-known Cuban musician, first heard the song and then ...
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Manuel Corona (musician)
Manuel Corona Raimundo (17 June 1880, in Caibarién – 9 January 1950 in Marianao, Havana) was a Cuban trova musician, and a long-term professional rival of Sindo Garay. He came to Havana when the Cuban War of Independence broke out, and worked as a bootblack and a cigar-roller. His supervisor at the cigar factory taught him the guitar, and in 1905 he set up in a café in the red-light district of ''San Isidro''. The district was controlled by the chulo (pimp) Alberto Yarini Alberto Yarini y Ponce de León (1882-1910) was a Cuban racketeer and pimp during the period of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. Yarini was well known in his time, is Cuba's most famous pimp, and came to symbolize the concept of C ... (1882–1910), who became famous for introducing French prostitutes (putas francesas) willing to perform more salacious acts than even the Cubans were used to. The francesas cut heavily into the profits of the Cuban putas, and the result was a gang ...
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Rosendo Ruiz
Rosendo Ruiz Suárez (1 March 1885 – 1 January 1983) was a Cuban singer, guitarist and composer, considered one of the founders of the trova. He wrote over 200 songs in a variety of styles ranging from canción and bolero to guajira and bambuco. Although he was a popular performer, founding several successful groups, he made very few recordings. He lived for almost a century, having a great influence on the music of his country. Career Rosendo Ruiz Suárez was born in Santiago de Cuba on 1 March 1885. He became a tailor, but soon became interested in music. Like Sindo Garay, Ruiz had a humble background and he taught himself the guitar. Pepe Sánchez gave him lessons to improve his guitar technique and took him into a group of musicians who were brightening up ''fiestas'' for wealthy whites in the environs of Santiago de Cuba. Short of money, he moved first to Cienfuegos, then to Havana. His first composition was "Venganza de amor", written in 1902. He later composed "Mares y ...
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Chicho Ibáñez
Chicho Ibáñez, born José Ibáñez Noriega (Corral Falso, 22 November 1875 – Havana, 18 May 1981) was the longest-lived and one of the most important members of the Cuban trova. He was significant because, unlike most of the others, he specialized in Afro-Cuban genres. He was a disciple of the tresero Eduardo Fusté, and a member of early groups in Cárdenas, such as ''Peonia'' and that of Benito Tumborombo. Later he moved to Havana, where he joined ''Los Veintiuno'', directed by Alejandro Sotolongo, which used claves, maracas, marimbula, bongó and pianito (a wooden instrument with hemp cords). He worked in other groups, and in the '' Sans-Souci'', formerly the leading cabaret in Havana.Giro, Radamés 2007. ''Diccionario encyclopédico de la música en Cuba''. vol 2, La Havana. p250 Ibáñez was the first trovador that we know of to specialize in the son and also on guaguancós and afrocuban rhythms from the abakuá. He played the Cuban tres rather than the Spanish guitar, ...
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Nueva Trova
Nueva Trova (, "new trova") is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes. Nueva Trova has its roots in the traditional trova, but differs from it because its content is, in the widest sense, political. It combines traditional folk music idioms with 'progressive' and often politicized lyrics. It is related to nueva canción in Latin America, especially Chile and Argentina. Some of the Nueva Trova musicians were also influenced by rock and pop of that time. Nueva Trova is defined by its connection with the Cuban revolution, and by its lyrics, which tried to escape the banalities of life by concentrating on socialism, injustice, sexism, colonialism, racism and similar 'serious' issues. Haydée Santamaría was the creator and sponsor of this movement. Influences Nueva Trova was one aspect of the Pan-Latin American "new song movement" which tended to use lyrics that were self-consciously ...
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