Search Results for: Sonora Matancera

Andy Gonzalez started as a musician at the age of 13 in the Latin Jazz Quintet in New York

Andrew “Andy” Gonzalez passed away on April 9, 2020.

Virtuoso bassist, arranger and musical director of Don Manny Oquendo’s “El Conjunto Libre” and Eddie Palmieri’s “La Perfecta”.

Andy has worked throughout his extensive artistic career that spans almost 50 years, with approximately 800 recordings, where he has had the opportunity to be as co-leader, producer, musical director or sideman.

Andy began as a musician at the age of 13 in the Latin Jazz Quintet, a group inspired by the music performed by vibraphonist Cal Tjader and in which he shared with his brother Jerry.

Although long before that, Gerardo Gonzalez, Gonzalez’s father, had already begun his son’s musical

Gerardo was the vocalist of Augie Melendez y Su Combo, an ensemble influenced by the sound of Sexteto La Playa.

Andy Gonzalez virtuoso Bajista, Arreglista y Director musical de “El Conjunto Libre” de Don Manny Oquendo y de “La Perfecta” de Eddie Palmieri

It is worth mentioning that during their time in the Latin Jazz Quintet, the Gonzalez brothers met a person who would change their lives: pianist Llewellyn Matthews, with whom they learned the discipline necessary to “graduate” as professional musicians, both were part of the big band of this decisive leader.

Later came Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta, his brother’s Fort Apache Band, the Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nuevayorquino and Manny Oquendo y Libre, 4 groups that changed forever the perception of the music we know today as Salsa.

He collaborated with The Fort Apache Group, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Astor Piazzolla and Ray Barretto.

Andy González is a fundamental reference in the history of Caribbean music and Latin jazz. He has played with almost mythological musicians at times when they left a deep mark on both Latin jazz and dance music.

Andy González se inició como músico a los 13 años en el Latin Jazz Quintet en New York

He has been bassist for Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barreto, Conjunto Libre, Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nuevayorquino, Fort Apache Band, and on some occasions for Ismael Rivera y sus Cachimbos, Cortijo y su Combo and Sonora Matancera.

In this conversation, held in Santiago de Compostela -during the Compostela Millenium Festival in August 2000- he vibrates when talking about his record collection, he declares himself a fan of the study of the roots of the music he makes and reviews his artistic life since when with his band, at the age of 13 and together with his brother Jerry, they imitated the sound of Cal Tjader.

Passion for music

I’m as much a music fan as I am a musician. Just like any music lover. I’m a fan of the things I appreciate that are important in the history of music. I have studied a lot and that has allowed me to notice the quality and quantity of artists that this music has produced. Great artists, people who have contributed a lot. When you have and study a collection of records like the one I have, you realize that now there are few.

Andrew “Andy” González muere El 9 de abril de 2020ººº — Andrew “Andy” González muere El 9 de abril de 2020

Inspiration

Cal Tjader was my inspiration when I started. Also for Fort Apache Band, because their music had a strong jazz component, but with Cuban rhythms. Good rhythms. We had a great interest in what Cal Tjader was doing.

When we started playing we were copying what Tjader was doing. We were little kids of 13 and 14 years old. We had a very similar repertoire with the same quintet, where Jerry played congas.

Once we even had a dance next to the place where Tjader played, doing the same music. Armando Peraza played congas for Tjader and once he saw us and congratulated us. We always had the support of musicians with more experience, veterans of other generations.

Dj. Augusto Felibertt, Andy Gonzalez, Rafael Muro y Omar Mejias. Centro Cultural La Estancia en Caracas

Main Source: Pablo Larraguibel

Also Read: Roberto Rodríguez fue un trompetista y compositor cubano, autor del éxito de Ray Barreto «Que viva la Música»

Papo Lucca. The Giant of the South

Latin America / Puerto Rico

Papo Lucca born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on April 2, 1946, Enrique ‘Papo’ Lucca began playing the piano at age 11 with his father’s orchestra. Initially, La Ponceña played versions of tropical hits of the moment by bands like Cortijo y su Combo and La Sonora Matancera.

In the late 1960s, Papo became the orchestra’s musical director, beginning a profound transformation that would eventually establish la Ponceña as one of the most progressive groups in the history of Afro-Caribbean music. Papo’s orchestrations were bold, experimenting with elements of jazz, rock, and Brazilian music. Representing the authentic spirit of Puerto Rican salsa, his piano solos were velvety, displaying elegance, restraint, and infinite swing.

During the mid-’70s, La Ponceña began to enjoy unprecedented success with critics and the public. The band recorded for the Inca label, which eventually became part of the Fania empire. Papo was invited to arrange and play on sessions for the company’s biggest artists, including Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz and Cheo Feliciano. He also recorded and toured with the Fania All Stars.

This compilation pays tribute to the art of Papo Lucca through 14 classic songs recorded between 1967 and 1981. Although Lucca has recorded as a solo artist and also collaborated with a multitude of salsa stars, it is his work with La Ponceña that best expresses the clarity of his vision.

The music we make has to make people happy, as well as make them dance. That’s what it’s all about, says Lucca from her home in Puerto Rico. When the public can dance, no matter how complicated the music is. The first theme that this genre had was to divulge the things that happened in the different communities, as if it were a newspaper.

Our journey begins with two fiery songs from the beginnings of La Ponceña: “Hachero Pa’Un Palo” and “Fuego En El 23” are versions of songs by Cuban Arsenio Rodríguez. La Ponceña always had a soft spot for Puerto Rican folklore, but she also found inspiration in the golden age of Cuban music.

The precise moment in which La Ponceña becomes a mature orchestra in total control of its aesthetics can be found in the six songs from the Musical Conquest/Conquista Musical and El Gigante Del Sur albums. Launched on the market in 1976 and 1977 respectively, they represent the pinnacle of the salsa movement.

These songs combine a musical skill that approaches virtuosity with deep lyrics and a generous sense of humor. “Ñáñara Caí” is a hilarious narrative of pure magical realism, describing a world where everything is turned upside down (my favorite phrase: I saw a cow/Hit with Pacheco). Also included in Musical Conquest, “El Pío Pío” achieves the perfect cross between Afro-Cuban rhythm and contagious pop. This hit is a mandatory part of all La Ponceña concerts.

The opening theme of the El Gigante Del Sur album, “Boranda” seems to offer a salsa version of progressive rock. Its lyrics contain an important sociopolitical message, and the sophistication of its arrangement is a slap in the face for all those who believe that this music is only for dancing. “Soy Tan Feliz” combines bolero climates with an electric piano solo that recalls the psychedelic sound of jazz-rock from the ’70s. “Noche Como Boca ‘E Lobo” creates a tasty collision between salsa fever and Brazilian rhythms.

Lucca was not alone in his mission to reinvent the rules of Puerto Rican dance music. It was also benefited by the prowess of some of the best instrumentalists on the island. Furthermore, his instinct for choosing singers was always irreproachable.

Some of the vocalists of la Ponceña that appear here are Tito Gómez, who would later find fame with the Grupo Niche de Colombia; the inimitable Luigi Texidor, who gave a sense of placidity to all the songs he performed; and Yolanda Rivera, who added variety to the band’s sound with her unique timbre.

One of Rivera’s happiest moments is included here: Coming from 1980’s Unchained Force, Johnny Ortiz’s “Borinquen” is a soulful anthem to Puerto Rico, blessed with a sinuous melody and subtle instrumental arrangement–one of Rivera’s happiest moments. transcendental within the Ponceña canon.

The golden days of salsa are a distant memory in the new millennium, but Papo Lucca hasn’t stopped shining. Perhaps precisely because he continues to record new music, he refuses to idealize the past when I ask him what his favorite album with “La Ponceña.”

The last one, the most recent, he explained in his characteristically introverted tone. All the albums are very important in the career of the orchestra. They all fulfilled their mission at the time, which was to reaffirm the previous one. That’s the way to maintain a pool after 50 years.

The teacher was a little more direct when I asked him about his favorite concert of all time.

It was my first concert with the Fania All Stars at Madison Square Garden, back in 1974, he said. All the stars of the Fania were still alive. A few years later we played in front of 47,000 people in Cali. My knees always shake before I go on stage, but this time they shook a little more.

Vocalist of La Moderna Tradición Eduardo Herrera and his fascinating story

This time, we are very pleased to have been able to talk with a talented Venezuelan who has left the name of his country well off thanks to his talent and professionalism. We are talking about bandleader and singer Eduardo Herrera, who was kind enough to speak exclusively to us and give us details on his personal and professional life so that we can get to know a little more about him.

This is vocalist of La Moderna Tradición and Venezuelan singer Eduardo Herrera

How did Eduardo Herrera become interested in music?

Eduardo comments that his parents always spent their time singing in a very cheerful way since he was a child, so his best childhood memories are with music.

He grew up in Caracas, so he always had close contact with all kinds of music and listened to a great variety of artists starting with Celia Cruz, La Sonora Matancera, La Billo Caracas Boys, Los Melódicos, Benny Moré, Oscar D’ León, Daniel Santos, Los Adolescentes La Dimensión Latina, La Fania, among others. These artists strongly encouraged him to lean towards salsa in the 1970s.

In his hometown, he began playing with the Teresa Carreño Chamber Choir, which was his first professional contact with music and, in his own words, was a great school for him during his time there.

In 1987, being already in the state of California, United States, there was an orchestra called Radiante that played Puerto Rican salsa. Eduardo worked with them for a year until he joined Orquesta Sensual, whose strength was romantic salsa that was fashionable at the time.

After that, he also worked with Orquesta Charanzón, which at that time was led by Anthony Blea, a famous violinist from the Bay Area. It was with this band that he began to fully discover Cuban music and develop a great passion for it, which would lead him to continue along this path in the following years.

In those years, he played with an unlimited number of orchestras with which he gained a lot of experience and learned to perform properly on stage. However, his big break came with the Orquesta La Moderna Tradición in 2021, when he was offered to participate with the group in some projects.

Even so, the latter did not prevent him from working with other groups of this style throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as he has no problem with playing with anyone who wants to invite him.

Eduardo Herrera and Tregar Otton — Eduardo Herrera next to director, arranger, composer and violinist Tregar Otton at Yoshi’s

Reasons to leave Venezuela and go to the United States

Like any other immigrant, Eduardo’s primary reason for leaving his country was the search for new opportunities. Eduardo goes on to explain that he was awarded a scholarship by the famous Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho fellowship programme and managed to obtain his degree in biology in the United States, but unfortunately with the change of government, the things that were promised to him and other fellows such as jobs and revalidations were not kept. As a result, the young man was left in a limbo that made it nearly impossible for him to practice biology.

With his options reduced to almost zero in Venezuela, Eduardo had no choice but to return to the United States, where he started working as a high school teacher until 2023, when he finally retired from his basic profession. In total, he taught for more than 40 years at the secondary level. During most of this time, he combined his school activities with his second profession, which was music.

Other areas of music explored by Eduardo

The singer explained to us that his voice has always been his most important instrument when he gets on stage, but he also confesses to having experimented with hand percussion instruments such as the maracas and the güiro. He pointed out that both are very easy to learn at first glance, but they have their level of complexity once you try them.

At present, he only uses his voice in the orchestras in which he currently plays.

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición

”La Moderna Tradición reached out to me at the beginning to record one of their CDs and I started singing backup and the harmonies, which is how you should always get you started in any group. When you master those areas and have the talent, you may think about being a soloist and that’s exactly what happened with me” Eduardo started saying about the issue.

La Moderna Tradición’s music was mostly instrumental at that time and they wanted Eduardo for their second album, which would include choirs for the first time, but the group had no singer at that time. In view of the good results offered by the vocalist, he found himself in frequent demand to give voice to other old numbers, but now with a singer.

Years later, he finally received the proposal to be part of the orchestra as such, together with Ramón ”Monchi” Estévez on vocal. Already for the third album, all the songs had a singer, who was Eduardo most of the time.

From then on, the artist has continued to be part of La Moderna Tradición with some interruptions because he moved from the Bay Area to the Central Valley in Manteca, which made it more complex for him to play with the orchestra on weekday evenings.

At the same time, he worked with the group Vissión Latina, Carlos Caro’s orchestra or any other that invited him to play on weekends, which were on his days off.

What Eduardo has learned from La Moderna Tradición and other artists he has played with

The most important things Eduardo says he has learned from the great artists he has played with are the study, humility, knowing your limits and the development of the love of music. He says the latter is fundamental, because if you do not love music, you will not do the job right.

”With music, you sacrifice your time and the pay you receive in return does not always go according to what you do, but it is something you’re supposed to do for the love you have for the craft. If you do not love what you do, you will hardly do it well and use your skills in it” said Eduardo. He added that ”you are an eternal student and you never know everything about everything. There is always something to learn from other singers and seeing any of them on stage is an opportunity to emulate what they do as long as it is useful for your career.

He also said that ”the ego of many artists is a really depressing thing because it prevents them from moving forward and takes their focus away from what is really important, which is the love of the genre and the opportunity to learn as much as you can”.

Complex moments for Eduardo personally and professionally

Eduardo mentioned to us that one of the hardest moments for him personally and professionally was his move outside of the Bay Area, which we had already talked about. Being so far away from the area where he did most of his performances was a blow to him, as he had to be near his wife and children.

Eduardo was very late from work and his wife had a job which made her to leave home for several days, so it was up to him to stay with the children during all that time. For the artist, his family comes first every time and no job or hobby goes above that.

His responsibilities with his children let him to distance himself from music little by little, since not being always available to play, orchestras would look for other singers to replace him. This made his opportunities to sing to be reduced, but Eduardo assures that the sacrifice has been worth it, as quality time with his children is the most main thing for him.

Eduardo’s plans to create his own orchestra

Eduardo was able to conduct an orchestra for a few months, which allowed him to see what the work of a director would be like and the truth is that he did not like it. ”During the time that I was conducting an orchestra, I could see I don’t have the right personality for it. I’m not good for working with adults who are irresponsible and many musicians tend to be late for the engagements and not to take this profession very seriously. I’m a very perfectionist person who has very high standards and I don’t expect anyone to work less than me, so I know it would be torturous for me to have a responsibility of that magnitude,” Eduardo said.

He says that being a bandleader is far beyond what he wants to do with music and that he wanted to keep developing as a singer. In addition to this, going back to the family issue, such a position would have forced him to be away from his family again and that was something he was not willing to do.

He also took into account the little stability offered by music as a profession. His work as a biology teacher was much more stable and allowed him to have secure income without having to worry about the bad times of orchestras. He loves music to a fault, but does not like uncertainty and insecurity.

Eduardo Herrera and Maru — Eduardo Herrera performing with Maru Pérez-Viana, La oderna Tradición manager and chorister

Other groups

In addition to playing with La Moderna Tradición, he also works with a Cuban group called Pellejo Seco, with which he recorded an album that is currently being remastered in Cuba. The material was recorded just before September in California, but will soon be released to the public.

Eduardo works directly with Ivan Camblor, director of the orchestra and professional tres player. In this part of the conversation, the artist was very complimentary about Camblor and highlighted his great potential as a bandleader and musician.

Something he likes about Pellejo Seco is that his main genre is Cuban son and it focuses a lot on very rural and traditional Cuban rhythms, so he can explore other elements different from what he does with La Moderna Tradición. They are very different groups with different genres and different characteristics.

Ezequiel Lino Frías Gómez was an excellent musician, pianist, arranger and composer.

Ezequiel Lino Frías Gómez was born on April 10, 1915 in Havana, Cuba.

Musician, Pianist, Arranger, Composer. He began his artistic career in the early 30’s, working with singer and composer Joseito Fernandez, in the orchestra of Raimundo Pla.

Later he became part of the Fantasía Orchestra.

At the end of the decade he worked with the Septeto Carabina de Ases.

Some time later he joined Arsenio Rodríguez’s Conjunto Todos Estrellas in September 1940, remaining in it until November 1943, leaving his place to Adolfo Oreilly Panacea, to join the Sonora Matancera in 1944, until 1976, where he contributed in an important way both in the composition and musical arrangements, imposing his particular piano solos.

In 1974 he helped found with Armando Sánchez the Conjunto Son de la Loma.

Upon his retirement from La Sonora Matancera, the Puerto Rican producer René López invited Lino, together with Israel “Cachao” López, to revive the descargas he had already recorded in the fifties, assembling a Típica together with “Cachao”.

In his independent years Lino worked with Johnny Pacheco and Carlos “Caito” Diaz.

He accompanied great artists in recordings, in that period in New York, such as La Lupe, Olga Guillot, Daniel Santos, Carmen Delia Dipini, Bobby Capo, among others.

He died on May 22, 1983 in New York, USA.

Lino Frías, who for twenty-two years was the pianist of the Sonora Matancera, composed the very popular Mata Siguaraya in 1951.

One of the most popular photos of the Sonora Matancera.

In it we can see Lino Frías from his piano looking at Celia Cruz, great interpreter of Mata Siguaraya, together with Benny Moré and Oscar D’León.

Ezequiel Lino Frías Gómez was born in Havana and died in New York in 1983.

Lino studied piano at the Havana Conservatory. For a time, in the 1930s, he played in the Raimundo Pia y Rivero Orchestra, whose singer was Joseito Fernandez. He would later play in the Orquesta Fantasía.

In 1939 he joined the Septeto Carabina de Ases, led by Mariano Oxamendi, guitarist and second voice, and with Bienvenido Grande, singer and harpsichord player, Nilo Alfonso, double bass, José Bergerey, maracas and third voice, Ramón Liviano Cisneros, tres player, Florencio Coco Morejón, bongos player, and Félix Chappotín, trumpet player.

In 1944, Lino joined the Sonora Matancera as a pianist, where he remained until 1976.

In the 1960s, Frías joined the movement that created the so-called salsa music, alongside Fania All Stars, Johny Pacheco, Bobby Rodríguez, Carlos Patato Valdés y Caíto, Carlos Manuel Díaz (Matanzas 1905-New York 1990), among others.

Don Adolfo, a Puerto Rican timbalero, worked with Lino Frías in a group that included some of the most renowned musicians and singers of the 1950s and 60s: Olga Guillot, Daniel Santos, Lucecita Benítez, Bobby Capó, Marco Antonio Múñiz, Carmen Delia Depiní, Chucho Avellaneda, Sergio González Siaba and La Lupe, among others.

In 1974, parallel to his work as a pianist in the Sonora Matancera, Lino Frías created the ensemble Son de la Loma, with the participation of Cuban-Niuyorquinos such as Marcelino Guerra, Rapindey (Cienfuegos 1914-Spain 1996), author of Convergencia, and Pedro Rudy Calzado (Santiago de Cuba 1929-New York 2002).

Due to arthritis, in 1976 Lino left the Sonora. His place is taken by Javier Vázquez, (Matanzas 1936), son of the double bass player Pablo Vázquez.

It is said that the death of Lino Frías, in 1983, was a hard blow for his great and faithful friend Celia Cruz (Havana 1925-New Jersey 2003).

In addition to Mata Siguaraya, Lino Frías composed Pan de piquito, Óyela, gózala, Vamos todos de panchanga, Cañonazo, Vive la vida hoy, Suena mi bajo, Convencida, Afecto y cariño, Has vuelto a mí, Baila Yemayá.

Also Read: Israel “Cachao” López Sobrado en fama y respeto en los años setenta se dedicó a mantener la tradición a nivel supremo

Pancho Quinto is considered one of Cuba’s great rumberos

On April 23, 1933, in the Havana neighborhood of Belen, Francisco Hernandez Mora, known as “Pancho Quinto”, was born.

Remembered man of the Cuban rumba to which he imprinted his own styles.

Pancho Quinto es considerado como uno de los grandes rumberos de Cuba

He accompanied for a long time with his percussion the Las D’Aida Quartet and the Canadian artist Jane Bunnett.

Considered as one of the great rumberos of Cuba by introducing new styles in the Cuban rumba whose artistic baptism was given in the famous comparsa of Los Dandys.

He performed in several groups such as Los Componentes de Batea, Los Guaracheros de Regla and other groups whose banner was the tambor bata, he had a brief stint with the Sonora Matancera and played in the orchestra that accompanied the Cuarteto Las D’Aida at the Tropicana Club.

Later he founded the Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario, a group that became the popular Yoruba group Andaba, which performed with the Canadian artist Jane Bunnett, with whom Pancho Quinto collaborated in other productions, and in the twilight of his career he had three productions as a soloist. This rumbero percussionist lived 71 years.

He was preceded by the sonorous echo of Pablo Roche’s bata lucumí juramentados. Such was the heritage that little Pancho gathered when he arrived in this world in the arms of his great-grandmother Camila, with no other identity than his African blood and his diagonal marks on his face, as was the ancestral custom of his family Ilé in the Gold Coast.

That night the conch shells spoke, and from that moment the child was consecrated to the deity of Shangó, god of music and drums.

He received on his right wrist a leather strap with fine bells, which, according to custom, would protect him and his drums from the bad influences of destiny.

Perhaps that is the reason why Pancho Kinto, when he played, knew that his music reached his ancestors in Oyó, beyond time, light and the Atlantic.

This man, a port man for most of his life, inherited the natural wisdom of those princes who came as slaves to Cuba.

In Pancho’s veins runs the blood of Añadí, a respectable warrior in his tribe who adopted the name of Año Juan in the Cuban sugar mills, that of Atandá, olú batá and drum sculptor in the Yoruba people. He was known here as ño Filomeno.

Both built and endowed with religious foundations the first set of bata drum that was born in the island, and from that remote time the sacred song of the orchestra consecrated to the lucumí altar was heard.

Un 23 de abril de 1933 en el habanero barrio de Belén, nació Francisco Hernández Mora, conocido como Pancho Quinto.

It could be said that they were the survivors of the total of slaves that arrived to America, there is an estimate of fifteen million according to data that I heard the Cuban investigator Leovigildo Lopez say when the first Yoruba congress, celebrated in the Palace of the Conventions in Havana.

But to that fantasy that leads men to the inspiration of that mysterious and mythical love towards life, to that renewed and novel way of singing, dancing, playing, turning the palpable into spiritual and the intangible into vital, men like Francisco Hernández Mora pay tribute, exponent of those traditions that merged in our continent and whose result is none other than the embrace between blacks and whites, although there are groups or castes that do not assimilate it as it is.

I learned a lot with Pablo,” said Pancho in this interview in 1994, when he was just beginning to play with flutist Janet Brunet, with whom he toured internationally, recorded and filmed in Canada.

Pablo was called Akilakua, powerful arm, he was a big black man, he goes on talking, with all gold teeth, ugly as his mother’s pussy, but with something special in his personality.

Of the historical drums he commented that they passed from the hands of the olú batá Andrés Roche to those of his son, later considered one of the greatest bataleros of these times.

Pablo’s father was called the Sublime, because of the way he played the original African bata, he did whatever he wanted with those hands. he added.

Paradoxically, the life of both has always been an unknown for those who try to unravel it or look for a chronological order, as it has almost always happened with many rumberos and composers, I am thinking now of Tío Tom or Chavalonga, but that is not the subject now, What I want to say is that these musicians have been teachers and inspiration for a pleiad of Cuban artists and of other nationalities that with luck have heard of the touches of those drums that officiated in the sacred ceremonies of the orisha pantheons.

From those drums, he commented, were born all the drum sets of secret foundation, because from one is born another, like children.

Among the batá there are two forms, the religious and the aberikula or Jewish, which can even be played by women. Of the old consecrated batá aña there are a few games left in Cuba, but many Jews have emerged, and have lost their orthodox character to serve in many cases for secular parties or to accompany orchestras in public.

Recordado hombre de la rumba cubana a la cuál le imprimió sus propios estilos

Pancho kinto played with those sworn drums when in the town council of Regla they took out the procession of the virgin, although it was Jesus Perez, another of Roche’s students, to whom it corresponded to offer the first public concert with a robe orchestra, a sacrilege for many at that time, and much more if it was an act in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana.

However, five decades after the writer and ethnologist Fernando Ortiz sponsored that concert, Pancho Kinto played the bata in the same university campus to pay homage to the memory of his ancestors with his sonority.

Pancho was a Cuban musician who learned to play quintiar from a very young age and along with this he made his drums and cajones in his own way, his own inventions, as he said, playing the tumbador with a spoon in his left hand, he was just a party of bata and cajon, I saw him do that many times in the fabulous rumbas that were celebrated in a lot in Campanario, where the group Yoruba Andabo used to meet in its beginnings.

There he became known for being a member of the Cayo Hueso group, but Pancho had been playing with them since they were Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario in the port of Havana.

Originally they were Geovani del Pino, Chang, el Chori, Palito, Fariñas, Callava, Marino, Pancho and others, many are gone forever like Pancho, whose unexpected death surprised everyone on February 11, 2005.

Of those anthological sarayeyeos remains the pleasure of the memory, the pleasant memory of the controversies of the quinto and the columbia dancer, the fraternal brawls between the guanguancó improvisers and the masterful recital of Pancho Kinto with the batá and the cajón.

Also Read: Yilian Cañizares, an excellent Cuban musician, studied in her hometown in the strictest tradition of the Russian school of violin