Beny More – “El Bárbaro del Ritmo” Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré was born in Santa Isabel de las Lajas on August 24, 1919. Helio Orovio says in his Dictionary of Cuban Music: “Unanimously considered one of the most brilliant artists produced by our popular music, he shone in all genres” HIS ANCESTORS. -He descended from the king of a Congo tribe. His son, Gundo, was captured by slave traders. In Lajas he was sold to a landowner named Ramon Paredes and they called him Ta Ramon Gundo Paredes. He is the great-great-grandfather of Benny Moré. He was sold to Doña Susana Benítez. Later to the Count of More and is renamed Ta Ramón Gundo Moré. With Julia More (slave owned by the Count) they have a daughter named Julia. Gundo becomes mancipated and dies free at the age of 94.
Julia More has six children with Simeón Armenteros y Calvo, Colonel of the Mambí Army: Patricia, Bernabé, Tomás, Felipa, Chiquitica and Sofía. Patricia was the first of the daughters. She was not recognized by her father and carries her mother’s surname Moré. Patricia had relations with a wealthy Spaniard and had four children: Ofelia, Felipe, Julia and Virginia Secundina.
The father did not recognize them, so they carry their mother’s Moré surname. At the age of 18, Virginia Secundina has a son with Silvestre Gutiérrez: Bartolomé Maximiliano, who carries his mother’s surname, was the eldest of 18 siblings.
Bartolomé himself assures that he always had a vocation for music: “I think I started singing when they took away my diapers, at least that’s how I see myself in my memories, singing since I was a child” His mother confirms that since he was a child he liked music. His mother says that when he was six years old he looked for a board and a spool of thread, tied the thread to the board and said that they were the strings of a guitar. This is how he made his first guitar at the age of six.
His brother Teodoro participated in the ensemble that Benny put together at a very young age, with machetes and nails as instruments. Condensed milk cans served as bongos. In 1935, at the age of 16, he was part of the first serious musical group.
He didn’t know anything about music, he bought a guitar but he didn’t know how to play it. He went with his brother Teodoro to cut cane at the Jaronú plant and met Castellanos and Víctor Landa, who helped him to start playing the guitar. With the money he earned and Teodoro’s savings, he bought his first quality guitar in Morón.
The following year, 1936, he goes to Havana. He lives by selling fruits and viands that are beaten or deteriorated and medicinal herbs. Six months later he returns to Las Lajas. He moved to the Jaguayal plant, near Ciego de Avila, to cut sugar cane with Teodoro.
Later they go to Central Vertientes. In 1939 Bartolomé and Teodoro fall ill with malaria fever.
They alternate their work with serenades in the company of the Avance group (Horacio Landa, Enrique Benítez, Che Casonas, Mayombe and others. Benny was the singer). With two of the members of this group (Enrique Benítez and Cheo Casanovas), he later formed a trio of voices and guitars.
In 1940 he arrives in Havana for the second time. For four years he lives as he can, playing and singing in bars and cafes. He would pass his hat and say “Cooperate with the Cuban artist”. In the restaurants he was thrown out on the street so as not to disturb the clientele. At the beginning of the 40’s he started in the radio, in the CMQ radio station he started a program called “Corte Suprema del Arte” (Supreme Court of Art), in which all kinds of artists competed.
Those who succeed are hired by unscrupulous businessmen, who exploit them. Others are not so lucky and their participation in the contest is abruptly and humiliatingly cut short by the ringing of a bell. Bartolomé enters the contest. The program is presented by Germán Pinelli and José Antonio Alonso. As soon as he began to sing, they rang the bell. Later he participated again in this program and won the first prize.
since 2007
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