José "Pepe" Sánchez (

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 ...

, 19 March 1856 – 3 January 1918), was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n musician, singer and composer. He is known as the father of the ''

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 and the creator of the Cuban

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 ...

. 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 ''Bufo'' is a genus of true toads in the amphibian family Bufonidae. As traditionally defined, it was a wastebasket genus containing a large number of toads from much of the world, but following taxonomic reviews most of these have been moved t ...

'' 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 teacher for the great trovadores who followed him:

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 a ...

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. ...

, Manuel Corona and Alberto Villalón.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z.'' p195. Other works of note are ''Pobre artista'', ''Rosa'' I, II and III, ''Cuando oí la expressión de tu canto'', ''Cuba, mi patria querida'', ''Caridad'', ''Esperanza'', ''Naturaleza'' and ''Himno a Maceo''. There is one modern recording of his music: *''La música de Pepe Sánchez''. Siboney LD–315

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez (trova), Pepe 1856 births 1918 deaths Cuban male singer-songwriters Cuban male guitarists 19th-century Cuban male singers 20th-century Cuban male singers 19th-century guitarists