Alberto Villalón Morales (

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

, 7 June 1882 –

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, 16 July 1955) was one of the greatest musicians in the Cuban

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 s ...

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 Adolfo Columbo ( Canary Islands, 1868 – Havana 1953) was a leading singer in the Alhambra Theatre in Havana, and also an actor and a leading personality in the theatre. Colombo was the most recorded artist in Cuba up to 1925: records show he ...

(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 trovadors was in his guitar technique. With his training he preferred picking (punteado) instead of strumming (rasgueado), which had been the main technique previously. This gave him a wider range of harmonic possibilities and a characteristic style. He had a second career in 1927 when he became a founding member of the

Septeto Nacional Septeto Nacional (National Septet), or the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro, is a Cuban group credited with expanding the Son musical style before Arsenio Rodríguez. It added the trumpet to percussion, vocals, and strings. The group started as ...

Ignacio Piñeiro Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez (May 21, 1888 – March 12, 1969) was a Cuban musician, bandleader and composer whose career started in rumba and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total he w ...

. Alberto brought into the septet Juan de la Cruz and Benvenido León, who had been playing with him in a trio. The addition of the first really great sonero,

Abelardo Barroso Abelardo Barroso Dargeles (21 September 1905 – 27 September 1972) was a Cuban bandleader and singer, the first sonero mayor (lead singer of the son) to be recognized as such by the Cuban public. Born in Havana, Cuba, he was the lead singer ...

(1905 – 1972), made the Nacional the best group in Cuba for its time. Villalón's career, then, connected the world of trova with the world of son which became central to Cuba's popular music for the rest of the century.

References

*Hermanas Martí: ''Música de Alberto Villalón''. EGREM LDA–3189

External links

Alberto Villalón Morales recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Villalon, Alberto 1882 births 1955 deaths Cuban male singer-songwriters Cuban guitarists Cuban male guitarists People from Santiago de Cuba Musicians from Havana 20th-century Cuban male singers 20th-century guitarists