René Touzet y Monte was a Cuban-born American composer, pianist and bandleader.

Career as bandleader

Living in the city of Cojimar

Cojimar

Cojimar is a small fishing village east of Havana. It was the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It was also the location where during the 1940s an enormous Great white shark was caught, which is one of the contenders for the largest specimen of all time...

, he learned classical piano from the age of 4, and went on to study at the Falcón Conservatory in Havana. By 1934 his classical training ended because of his family’s financial hardship, and he accepted a job as a pianist in Luis Rivera’s jazz band. Soon afterwards he became the leader of a 16-piece orchestra, playing big band music at the Grand Casino in Havana, and also began writing his own compositions. One of his most famous songs, "No Te Importe Saber", was recorded with lyrics by Mitchell Parish

Mitchell Parish

Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...

 as "Let Me Love You Tonight", by Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Dean Martin

Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

 and others.

In 1944, after his club in Cuba was destroyed by a hurricane, Touzet moved to the USA where he joined a band led by Enrique Madriguera. The band then moved to Hollywood, where Touzet met Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...

, and joined his band for a while. He also worked as pianist, songwriter and arranger with Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

 and Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

.

After forming his own orchestra in the mid-1950s, he successfully recorded ten albums for producer Gene Norman on his GNP Crescendo label between 1956 and 1966, and performed regularly at Norman’s club. One of his best known arrangements of this period, "El Loco Cha Cha", provided R&B singer Richard Berry

Richard Berry

Richard Berry was an African American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins....

 with the riff for his classic pop song "Louie Louie

Louie Louie

"Louie Louie" is an American rock 'n' roll song written by Richard Berry in 1955. It has become a standard in pop and rock, with hundreds of versions recorded by different artists...

". Touzet remained a popular bandleader through the 1960s, incorporating pachangas and other new rhythms into his compositions, without losing touch with the boleros and cha chas that brought him his first fame.

Later years and family

In 1972 Touzet retired from performing popular music and moved to Miami, Florida, devoting his remaining years to composing for the piano, in a style blending Cuban folk music and jazz with classical music. His published compositions for piano include Cuarenta Danzas, Cuatro Capricios, Ginasteriana, Fantasía Española, Cinco Danzas Exóticas, Vals Arabesco, Tres Miniaturas, and the Sonata Romántica.

Touzet was married to Isabel Gonzalez (1917-1991) and they had two daughters, Olivia and Nilda Touzet-Gonzalez. He later married Mercy Remos. He had three other daughters, Olga Maria Touzet-Guillot, with the singer, Olga Guillot

Olga Guillot

Olga Guillot was a Cuban singer who was known to be the "queen of bolero". She was a native of the Cuban city of Santiago.Guillot and her family moved to Havana, Cuba when she was a small child...

, Lisa Bahadoor and Bonita Calderon.

Touzet was given several honors and awards for his musical contributions, and in 2001 the mayor of Miami declared September 9 as "René Touzet Day." He died of heart complications in 2003.
A CD of his compositions was recorded by pianist Maria Letona and released in 2005.

External links and main source

• Biography
• Enrique Hernandez, "Sunset on a Golden Age", The Miami Herald, October 8, 2007