José Urfé González was a Cuban

Cubans

Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...

 clarinetist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He introduced a new musical element from the son into the danzón

Danzón

Danzón is the official dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is still beloved in Puerto Rico where Verdeluz, a modern danzón by Puerto Rican composer Antonio Cabán Vale is considered the unofficial national anthem...

 in 1910.

Urfé studied music with several tutors in his home town and in Havana before joining the Teatro Peyret orchestra, where he was coached by Pedro Pablo Díaz. In 1902 he was one of the founding members of Enrique Peña's orchestra, where he played second clarinet to José Belén Puig. Later the two clarinetists left to join the Félix González band.

Urfé composed habanera

Habanera

Habanera may refer to:*"Habanera" , an aria from Bizet's Carmen*Habanera , a 1984 Cuban film*La Habanera , a 1937 German movie...

s, criolla

Criolla

Criolla is a genre of Cuban music and song. It is a type of countryside music, or música campesina. The term is said to derive from canción criolla, or creole song. This Cuban genre developed in the late 19th century, and it also occurred in Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico at about the same time...

s, danzones

Danzón

Danzón is the official dance of Cuba. It is also an active musical form in Mexico and is still beloved in Puerto Rico where Verdeluz, a modern danzón by Puerto Rican composer Antonio Cabán Vale is considered the unofficial national anthem...

 and religious music. He travelled to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

as a member of theatre orchestras. His famous number El Bombín de Barreto (1910) incorporated a sychopated third part derived from the son. It was named after his friend's bowler hat. Other well-known compositions were Fefita, Nena, El churrero, El dios chino and El progreso.

José had four sons, Odilio, Orestes, José and Esteban, all of whom were musicians.