Césario Concepción Martínez, (28 July 1909 – 11 March 1974), was a Puerto Rican musician, big band leader and composer, who brought the music of his native land to the United States, mainly New York City, and Latin American
ballroom dancing between the 1940s and early 1970s and to ballrooms all over the world. He popularized the modern
plena
Plena is a genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico.
Origins
The plena genre originated in Barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico, around 1900. It was influenced by the bomba style of music. Originally, sung texts were not associated wit ...
as a Latin song style.
Concepción was born in
Cayey,
Puerto Rico
; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
, and was a prolific composer, writing music based on contemporary Puerto Rican scenes and vistas. He wrote over 100
mambo
Mambo most often refers to:
*Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form
*Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music
Mambo may also refer to:
Music
* Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...
s, calypsos, boleros and
plenas songs to honor cities such as
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to:
* San Juan, Puerto Rico
* San Juan, Argentina
* San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines
San Juan may also refer to:
Places Arge ...
,
Mayagüez,
Ponce,
Yauco,
Plena Criolla (for Caguas), San German,
Pa Mi Pueblo, Cayey his town and Santurce among many others. In addition, he directed his own orchestra non stop for 27 years.
In 1933 together with his family boarded a ship, SS San Juan and migrated to New York City. Here he played as lead trumpet for many big bands, however spent most of his time with Eddie LeBaron and His Orchestra, which played at the Rainbow Room, a landmark, located on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center until it closed in 1942.
Upon his return to Puerto Rico founded, on June 14, 1947, "César Concepción y su Orquesta" and made its first presentation at the New Yorker Hotel, later known as Flamboyan Hotel, via live broadcast from
WIAC radio station.
His orchestra which consisted of 15 musicians was known for decades as the “best and most popular orchestra in Puerto Rico”, which was presented for many years by radio and television legendary personality Mariano Artau. Together with singer Joe Valle the orchestra obtained its highest popularity.
He died in
Río Piedras
Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream".
Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to:
Places United States
* Rio, Flo ...
, Puerto Rico of a heart attack at the age of 64.
Further reading
* Aparicio, Frances R.
"Listening to salsa: gender, Latin popular music, and Puerto Rican cultures" Wesleyan University Press, 1998. . Cf. p. 33
See also
*
List of Puerto Ricans
This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
References
1909 births
1974 deaths
People from Cayey, Puerto Rico
20th-century Puerto Rican musicians
20th-century conductors (music)
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