Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
) was a
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
n-born American pianist and manager. Curbelo was a key figure in
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave (rhythm), clave, and Afro-Brazil ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in the 1940s and helped to popularize
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 ...
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
via
Yahoo! News
Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...
, September 24, 2012.
Both of Curbelo's parents were born in Cuba, but his father had studied classical violin in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
before returning to play with the
Havana Philharmonic Orchestra
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Curbelo biography at
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
He studied under Pedro Menendez as a child and graduated from the
Molinas Conservatory Molinas is a Spanish surname meaning "mills". Notable people with this name include:
*Jack Molinas (1931–1975), American basketball player
* (1888–1973), Argentine politician
* Marta Molinas (born 1968), Paraguayan and Norwegian electrical engin ...
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', September 22, 2012.
In the 1930s he played with Cuban orchestras and formed the Orquesta Havana Riverside before moving to New York in 1939. There he played in the ensembles of
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat (; ; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was an American musician and bandleader who was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. Originally from Girona, Spain, he
spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba, before arriving i ...
, Juancito Sanabria, and José Morand early in the 1940s, and in 1942 founded his own ensemble. Among the musicians who played in Curbelo's band were
Candido
Candido is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Candido Amantini (1914–1992), Italian Roman Catholic priest
* Candido Camero, known simply as "Candido" (1921–2020), Cuban percussionist
* Candido J ...
,
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...
, and
Tito Rodriguez
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...
; the group split time between New York and Miami, and played in some of both cities' top nightclubs and ballrooms.
Starting in 1953, Curbelo worked with a sextet which included
Al Cohn
Al Cohn (November 24, 1925 – February 15, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He came to prominence in the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and was known for his longtime musical partnership with fellow saxophonist ...
arranged
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestratio ...
by Cohn himself and Puente as well as Rene Hernandez and
Chico O'Farrill
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill (October 28, 1921 – June 27, 2001) was a Cuban composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his work in the Latin idiom, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop", although he also composed traditional jazz pieces ...
. Curbelo's band recorded several albums in the cha-cha style for Morand's Fiesta Records in the 1950s. Curbelo wrote unforgettable songs in this period ("La La la", "La familia", "La Runidera" (1946), "Sun Sun babae" (1952), "Mambo y cha cha cha"); these songs have since been sung by
Ray Barreto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
and Oscar de Leon. Curbelo disbanded the group in 1959 and took up managing, founding an agency for Latin musicians called Alpha Artists.
Throughout the 1960s, Curbelo managed most of the major Latin bands in New York and was successful in negotiating favorably with promoters on behalf of his artists.
Curbelo invested in real estate later in life and moved to
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
in the 1980s, where he continued booking artists for festivals. He died in 2012 after spending the last few months of his life at a
hospice
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...
in
Aventura, Florida
Aventura is a planned suburban city in northeastern Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, north of Miami and part of the Miami metropolitan area. The city is especially known for Aventura Mall, the third largest mall in the United State ...
.
Discography
He made recordings in the 1950s and the early 1960s on Fiesta de.