José Antonio Fajardo Ramos (October 18, 1919 – December 11, 2001) was a Cuban charanga bandleader and

flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, who played the traditional five-keyed wooden flute. Born in Guane,

Pinar del Río Province The Pinar del Río Province is one of the 15 provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba. The capital and largest city is Pinar del Río (191,081 pop. in 2022). Geography The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost p ...

, Fajardo learned the flute from his father, before moving to Havana in the 1930s. He played with the band of Antonio María Romeu and formed his own charanga band in 1949. He defected to 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 ...

in 1961 while touring

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and reformed his band in

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with new musicians. Fajardo died on December 11, 2001, in New York, at the age of 82.

References

1919 births 2001 deaths Cha-cha-cha musicians Cuban bandleaders Cuban charanga musicians Cuban male musicians Cuban flautists Cuban composers Cuban male composers Danzón musicians Fania Records artists Mambo musicians People from Pinar del Río 20th-century flautists {{Cuba-musician-stub