Trova
Encyclopedia
Trova is one of the great roots of the Cuban music tree
. In the 19th century a group of itinerant musicians known as trovadores moved around Oriente, especially Santiago de Cuba
, earning their living by singing and playing the guitar
. According to one writer, to qualify as a trovador in Cuba, a person should a) sing songs of his own composition, or of others of the same kind; b) accompany himself on the guitar; and c) deal poetically with the song. This definition fits best the singers of bolero
s, and less well the Afrocubans singing funky sones
(El Guayabero) or even guaguancó
s and abakuá
(Chicho Ibáñez
). It rules out, perhaps unfairly, singers who accompanied themselves on the piano.
Probably, this kind of life had been going on for some time, but it comes into focus when we learn about named individuals who left their marks on Cuban popular music.
Trova musicians have played an important part in the evolution of Cuban popular music. Collectively, they have been prolific as composers, and have provided a start for many later musicians whose career lay in larger groupings. Socially, they reached every community in the country, and have helped to spread Cuban music throughout the world.
, born José Sánchez (Santiago de Cuba, 19 March 1856 – 3 January 1918), is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero
. He had some experience in bufo, but had no formal training in music. With remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost for ever, though some two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples wrote them down. His first bolero, Tristezas, is still remembered today. He also created advertisement jingles, believe it or not, before radio was born. He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed him.
The first, and one of the longest-lived, was Sindo Garay
, born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia (Stgo de C. 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968). He was the most outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been sung and recorded many times. Perla marina, Adios a La Habana, Mujer bayamesa, El huracan y la palma, Guarina and many others are now part of Cuba's heritage. Garay was also musically illiterate – in fact, he only taught himself the alphabet
at 16 – but in his case not only were scores recorded by others, but there are recordings as well.
In the 1890s Garay got involved in the Cuban War of Independence
, and decided a stay in Hispaniola
(Haiti
and Dominican Republic
) would be a good idea. It was, and he came back with a wife. Garay settled in Havana in 1906, and in 1926 joined Rita Montaner
and others to visit Paris, spending three months there singing his songs. He broadcast on radio, made recordings and survived into modern times. He used to say "Not many men have shaken hands with both Jose Marti
and Fidel Castro
!" Carlos Puebla
, whose life spanned the old and the new trova, told a good joke about him: "Sindo celebrated his 100th birday several times -- in fact, whenever he was short of money!"
José 'Chicho' Ibáñez
(Corral Falso, 22 November 1875 – Havana, 18 May 1981) was the first trovador (that we know of) to specialize in the son and also on guaguancó
s and afrocuban rhythms from the abakuá
. He played the tres rather than the Spanish guitar, and developed his own technique for this Cuban guitar. During his extremely long career, Chicho sang and played the son in streets, plazas, cafés, nightclubs and other venues throughout Cuba. In the 1920s, when the sextetos became popular, he was forced to sell his compositions to these larger groups and their composers in order to survive. His compositions include Tóma mamá que te manda tía, Evaristo, No te metas Caridad, Ojalá (sones); Yo era dichoso, Al fin mujer (bolero-sones); Qué más me pides, La saya de Oyá (guaguancos). He worked throughout Cuba, and latterly a short film was made of him ('See also' below).
The composer Rosendo Ruiz
(Sgo de C. 1 March 1885 – Havana, 1 January 1983) was a trovador almost as long-lived as Ibáñez and Garay. He wrote the criolla Mares y Arenas in 1911, the workers' anthem Redencion in 1917, the bolero Confesion, the guajira Junto al canaveral and the pregon-son Se va el dulcerito. He was the author of a well-known guitar manual.
Manuel Corona
(Calbarién 17 June 1880 – Havana 9 January 1950) started his career in a red light district of Havana. Originally a singer-guitarist, he became a prolific composer after his hand was damaged by a pimp's knife. It was a case of "She was a whore, and she had her man, but I loved her". Alberto Villalón
(Stgo de C. 7 June 1882 – Havana 16 07 1955) advanced the trova guitar technique and had a hand in the birth of the son septetos.
Garay, Ruiz, Villalón and Corona were known as the four greats of the trova, but Ibáñez and the following trovadores should be regarded as of equally high stature.
(Camaguey, 17 March 1879 – Havana, 15 February 1920); Eusebio Delfin
(Palmira, 1 April 1893 – Havana, 28 April 1965); María Teresa Vera
(Guanajay, 6 February 1895 – Havana, 17 December 1965); Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
(El Caney, 5 September 1907 – Havana, 16 November 1993); Joseíto Fernández
(September 5, 1908 – October 11, 1979); Ñico Saquito
(Antonio Fernandez: Sgo. de C. 1901 – Havana, 4 August 1982); Carlos Puebla
(Manzanillo, 11 September 1917 – Havana, 12 July 1989) and Compay Segundo
(Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz: Siboney, 18 November 1907 – Havana, 13 July 2003) were all great trova musicians. And let's not forget the Trio Matamoros
, who worked together for most of their lives. Matamoros was one of the greats.
Most trovadors were creolized, drawing from both Spanish and African traditions and styles even-handedly. There were exceptions. Guillermo Portabales
(Cienfuegos 6 April 1911 – San Juan, Puerto Rico 25 October 1970) and Carlos Puebla were mostly in the guajiro tradition, whilst El Guayabero – Faustino Oramas
– (Holguín, 4 June 1911 – Holguín, 28 March 2007) was black and funky in style and content. He was the last of the old trova, the oldest working musician in Cuba, at 95, when he died. His double entendres were a joy.
Trova musicians often worked in pairs and trios, some of them exclusively so (Compay Segundo). As the sextetos / septetos / conjuntos grew in popularity many trovadores joined in the larger groups.
The technique of guitar-playing gradually improved; the early trovadors, being self-taught, had rather limited techniques. Later, some tapped into classical guitar techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova. Guyún
(Vincente Gonzalez Rubiera, Stgo de C. 27 October 1908–Havana, 1987) studied under Severino Lopez, and developed a modern concept of harmony, and a way to apply classical technique to popular Cuban music. He became more adventurous, yet still in Cuban vein, and in 1938 stopped performing to devote himself to teaching the guitar. This bore fruit, and two generations of Cuban guitarists bear witness to his influence.
Perhaps the greatest guitarist amongst modern Cuban trovadors is Eliades Ochoa
(b. Songo La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, 22 June 1946), the leader of Cuerteto Patría. Ochoa learnt both Spanish guitar and the Cuban trés; Cuban composer and classical guitarist Leo Brouwer
told him that he did not need to learn more about musical technique as he already knew too much! Ochoa plays now with an eight-stringed guitar (a self-designed hybrid of an acoustic six-string and the Cuban trés). Cuerteto Patría includes his brother Humberto Ochoa on guitar, son Eglis Ochoa on maracas, William Calderón on bass, Anibal Avila on claves and trumpet, and Roberto Torres on congas.
and Los Zafiros
, modelled themselves on U.S. close-harmony groups. Others were singers who had heard Ella Fitzgerald
, Sarah Vaughan
and Nat King Cole
. Filín singers included César Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez, who spent a decade in Mexico from 1949 to 1959, Frank Domínguez
, the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, and the great singers of boleros Elena Burke
and the still-performing Omara Portuondo
, who both came from the Cuarteto d'Aida.
The filín movement, which originally had a place every afternoon on Radio Mil Diez, survived the first few years of the revolution quite well, but somehow did not suit the new circumstances and gradually withered, leaving its roots in jazz, romantic song and the bolero perfectly healthy. Some of its most prominent singers, such as Pablo Milanés, took up the banner of the nueva trova.
dates from the 1967/68, after the Cuban Revolution
of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes. It differed from the traditional trova, not because the musicians were younger, but because the content was, in the widest sense, political. Nueva trova is defined, not only by its connection with Castro
's revolution, but also by its lyrics. The lyrics attempt to escape the banalities of life (e.g. love) by concentrating on socialism, injustice, sexism, colonialism, racism and similar 'serious' issues. Silvio Rodríguez
and Pablo Milanés
became the most important exponents of this style. Carlos Puebla
and Joseíto Fernández
were long-time trova singers who added their weight to the new regime, but of the two only Puebla wrote special pro-revolution songs.
The regime gave plenty of support to musicians willing to write and sing anti-U.S. or pro-revolution songs; this was quite a bonus in an era when many of the traditional musicians were finding it difficult or impossible to earn a living. In 1967 the Casa de las Américas in Havana held a Festival de la canción de protesta (protest songs). Much of the effort was spent applauding causes that would annoy the U.S. government. Tania Castellanos, a filín singer and author, wrote ¡Por Angela! in support of Angela Davis
. César Portillo de la Luz wrote Oh, valeroso Viet Nam. These were hot topics of the 1970s, but their topicality declined as time passed.
Nueva Trova, initially so popular, was dealt a blow by the fall of the Soviet Union
, though it was already fading. It suffered inside Cuba, perhaps from a growing disenchantment with one-party rule, and externally, from the vivid contrast with the Buena Vista Social Club
film and recordings. Audiences round the world have had their eyes opened to the extraordinary charm and musical quality of the older forms of Cuban music. By contrast, topical themes that seemed so relevant in the 1960s and 70s now seem dry and passé; once a theme is no longer topical, the piece rests solely on its musical quality. Those pieces of high musical and lyrical quality, amongst which Puebla's Hasta siempre
stands out, will probably last as long as Cuba lasts.
.
and his son.
Floro y Miguel: Floro Zorilla and Miguel Zaballa. Outstanding in their day.
Floro y Cruz: Floro Zorilla and Juan Cruz. Cruz was a terrific baritone
.
Pancho Majagua y Tata Villegas: Francisco Salvo and Carlos Villegas.
María Teresa y Zequieira: María Teresa Vera
and Rafael Zequeira.
Dúo Ana María y María Teresa: two female voices, Ana María García and Ma. Teresa Vera. Justa García also sang duo with each of these two women.
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
and María Teresa Vera.
José 'Galleguito' Parapar y Higinio Rodríguez.
Juan de la Cruz y Bienvenido León.
Manuel Luna y José Castillo.
Dúo Hermanos Enriso: Enrique 'Chungo' and Rafael 'Nené' Enriso.
Dúo Luna–Armiñan: Pablo Armiñan (primo) and Manuel Luna (segundo and guitar)
Dúo Pablito–Castillo: Pablo Armiñan (primo) and Augusto Castillo (segundo).
Dúo Pablito y Limonta: Pablo Armiñan (voz primo and guitar accompanist) and Juan Limonta (segunda, guitar and author). Extremely popular in Santiago de Cuba in the 1920s.
Dúo Juanito Valdés y Rafael Enriso.
Dúo Carbo–Quevedo: Pablo Quevedo (primo) and Panchito Carbó (segundo and guitar).
Dúo Hermanas Martí: Amelia and Bertha.
Dúo Sirique y Miguel: Alfredo 'Sirique' González and Miguel Doyble.
Los Compadres
: Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, first with Compay Segundo
, then with Rey Caney
.
Music of Cuba
The Caribbean island of Cuba has developed a wide range of creolized musical styles, based on its cultural origins in Europe and Africa. Since the 19th century its music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world...
. In the 19th century a group of itinerant musicians known as trovadores moved around Oriente, especially Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
, earning their living by singing and playing the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. According to one writer, to qualify as a trovador in Cuba, a person should a) sing songs of his own composition, or of others of the same kind; b) accompany himself on the guitar; and c) deal poetically with the song. This definition fits best the singers of bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
s, and less well the Afrocubans singing funky sones
Son (music)
The Son cubano is a style of music that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. Son combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arará origin...
(El Guayabero) or even guaguancó
Guaguancó
Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three drums, similar to conga drums: the tumba , llamador , and quinto...
s and abakuá
Abakuá
Abakua or Abakuá is an Afro-Cuban men's initiatory fraternity, or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon...
(Chicho Ibáñez
Chicho Ibáñez
Chicho Ibáñez, born José Ibáñez Noriega was the longest-lived and one of the most important members of the Cuban trova. He was significant because, unlike most of the others, he specialized in Afro-Cuban genres...
). It rules out, perhaps unfairly, singers who accompanied themselves on the piano.
Probably, this kind of life had been going on for some time, but it comes into focus when we learn about named individuals who left their marks on Cuban popular music.
The founders
Pepe SánchezPepe Sánchez (trova)
Pepe Sánchez, born José Sánchez , was a Cuban musician, singer and composer. He is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero....
, born José Sánchez (Santiago de Cuba, 19 March 1856 – 3 January 1918), is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
. He had some experience in bufo, but had no formal training in music. With remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost for ever, though some two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples wrote them down. His first bolero, Tristezas, is still remembered today. He also created advertisement jingles, believe it or not, before radio was born. He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed him.
The first, and one of the longest-lived, was Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay was born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia . He was the first, the smallest, and perhaps the longest-lived, of the trova artists taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the four greats of the trova. Sindo Garay was Spanish & Arawkan descendant...
, born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia (Stgo de C. 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968). He was the most outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been sung and recorded many times. Perla marina, Adios a La Habana, Mujer bayamesa, El huracan y la palma, Guarina and many others are now part of Cuba's heritage. Garay was also musically illiterate – in fact, he only taught himself the alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
at 16 – but in his case not only were scores recorded by others, but there are recordings as well.
In the 1890s Garay got involved in the Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War and the Little War...
, and decided a stay in Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
(Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
) would be a good idea. It was, and he came back with a wife. Garay settled in Havana in 1906, and in 1926 joined Rita Montaner
Rita Montaner
Rita Montaner, born Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda , was a Cuban singer, pianist, actress and star of stage, film, radio and television. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette , and she was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on...
and others to visit Paris, spending three months there singing his songs. He broadcast on radio, made recordings and survived into modern times. He used to say "Not many men have shaken hands with both Jose Marti
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
!" Carlos Puebla
Carlos Puebla
Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
, whose life spanned the old and the new trova, told a good joke about him: "Sindo celebrated his 100th birday several times -- in fact, whenever he was short of money!"
Chicho Ibáñez
Chicho Ibáñez, born José Ibáñez Noriega was the longest-lived and one of the most important members of the Cuban trova. He was significant because, unlike most of the others, he specialized in Afro-Cuban genres...
(Corral Falso, 22 November 1875 – Havana, 18 May 1981) was the first trovador (that we know of) to specialize in the son and also on guaguancó
Guaguancó
Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three drums, similar to conga drums: the tumba , llamador , and quinto...
s and afrocuban rhythms from the abakuá
Abakuá
Abakua or Abakuá is an Afro-Cuban men's initiatory fraternity, or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon...
. He played the tres rather than the Spanish guitar, and developed his own technique for this Cuban guitar. During his extremely long career, Chicho sang and played the son in streets, plazas, cafés, nightclubs and other venues throughout Cuba. In the 1920s, when the sextetos became popular, he was forced to sell his compositions to these larger groups and their composers in order to survive. His compositions include Tóma mamá que te manda tía, Evaristo, No te metas Caridad, Ojalá (sones); Yo era dichoso, Al fin mujer (bolero-sones); Qué más me pides, La saya de Oyá (guaguancos). He worked throughout Cuba, and latterly a short film was made of him ('See also' below).
The composer Rosendo Ruiz
Rosendo Ruiz
Rosendo Ruiz Suárez was one of the founders of the trova movement in Cuban music. He was originally a tailor, who became a singer, guitarist and composer...
(Sgo de C. 1 March 1885 – Havana, 1 January 1983) was a trovador almost as long-lived as Ibáñez and Garay. He wrote the criolla Mares y Arenas in 1911, the workers' anthem Redencion in 1917, the bolero Confesion, the guajira Junto al canaveral and the pregon-son Se va el dulcerito. He was the author of a well-known guitar manual.
Manuel Corona
Manuel Corona
Manuel Corona Raimundo was a Cuban trova musician, and a long-term professional rival of Sindo Garay....
(Calbarién 17 June 1880 – Havana 9 January 1950) started his career in a red light district of Havana. Originally a singer-guitarist, he became a prolific composer after his hand was damaged by a pimp's knife. It was a case of "She was a whore, and she had her man, but I loved her". Alberto Villalón
Alberto Villalón
Alberto Villalón Morales was one of the greatest musicians in the Cuban trova style....
(Stgo de C. 7 June 1882 – Havana 16 07 1955) advanced the trova guitar technique and had a hand in the birth of the son septetos.
Garay, Ruiz, Villalón and Corona were known as the four greats of the trova, but Ibáñez and the following trovadores should be regarded as of equally high stature.
The 20th century
Patricio BallagasPatricio Ballagas
Patricio Balagas Palacio was an important innovator in trova music. His compositions were written in 4/4 time when most others were composing in 2/4 time; and more important, he invented 'double text', where the melody is superimposed over the lead vocal, which then becomes the second voice...
(Camaguey, 17 March 1879 – Havana, 15 February 1920); Eusebio Delfin
Eusebio Delfín
Eusebio Delfín Figueroa was a Cuban trovador musician: a composer, guitarist and singer. He came from a middle-class family, and was trained as an accountant in Cienfuegos, where his family had moved...
(Palmira, 1 April 1893 – Havana, 28 April 1965); María Teresa Vera
María Teresa Vera
María Teresa Vera was a Cuban singer, guitarist and composer. She was an outstanding example of the Cuban trova movement....
(Guanajay, 6 February 1895 – Havana, 17 December 1965); Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo was a Cuban trova musician, a singer, guitarist and composer. His face showed clear signs of Indian descent: he was an indo-mulatto . He was the son and nephew of soneros, and he grew up in the ambiance of this type of Cuban music and dance...
(El Caney, 5 September 1907 – Havana, 16 November 1993); Joseíto Fernández
Joseíto Fernández
José Fernández Diaz, September 5, 1908 - October 11, 1979 , commonly known as Joseíto Fernández was a Cuban singer and songwriter. He is the writer of well-known songs, including: "Elige tú, que canto yo", "Amor de madre", Demuéstrame tú, and Así son, boncó, as well as the more famous "Guajira...
(September 5, 1908 – October 11, 1979); Ñico Saquito
Ñico Saquito
Ñico Saquito was a Cuban musician. He was a trova composer, guitarist and singer....
(Antonio Fernandez: Sgo. de C. 1901 – Havana, 4 August 1982); Carlos Puebla
Carlos Puebla
Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
(Manzanillo, 11 September 1917 – Havana, 12 July 1989) and Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.-Biography:...
(Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz: Siboney, 18 November 1907 – Havana, 13 July 2003) were all great trova musicians. And let's not forget the Trio Matamoros
Trio Matamoros
The Trio Matamoros were one of the most popular Cuban trova groups. Formed in 1925 by Miguel Matamoros , Rafael Cueto and Siro Rodriguez...
, who worked together for most of their lives. Matamoros was one of the greats.
Most trovadors were creolized, drawing from both Spanish and African traditions and styles even-handedly. There were exceptions. Guillermo Portabales
Guillermo Portabales
Guillermo Portabales was a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist who popularized the guajira style of Cuban music from the 1930s through the 1960s...
(Cienfuegos 6 April 1911 – San Juan, Puerto Rico 25 October 1970) and Carlos Puebla were mostly in the guajiro tradition, whilst El Guayabero – Faustino Oramas
Faustino Oramas
Faustino Oramas Osorío, El Guayabero, was a Cuban singer, tres guitarist and composer, the last surviving member of the traditional Cuban trova. Most of his repertoire consisted of sons and guaracha-sons, many with double entendres in the lyrics...
– (Holguín, 4 June 1911 – Holguín, 28 March 2007) was black and funky in style and content. He was the last of the old trova, the oldest working musician in Cuba, at 95, when he died. His double entendres were a joy.
The technique of guitar-playing gradually improved; the early trovadors, being self-taught, had rather limited techniques. Later, some tapped into classical guitar techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova. Guyún
Guyún
Guyún was an important guitarist, harmonist and teacher, who tapped into classical guitar techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova...
(Vincente Gonzalez Rubiera, Stgo de C. 27 October 1908–Havana, 1987) studied under Severino Lopez, and developed a modern concept of harmony, and a way to apply classical technique to popular Cuban music. He became more adventurous, yet still in Cuban vein, and in 1938 stopped performing to devote himself to teaching the guitar. This bore fruit, and two generations of Cuban guitarists bear witness to his influence.
Perhaps the greatest guitarist amongst modern Cuban trovadors is Eliades Ochoa
Eliades Ochoa
Eliades Ochoa is a Cuban guitarist and singer from Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago de Cuba....
(b. Songo La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, 22 June 1946), the leader of Cuerteto Patría. Ochoa learnt both Spanish guitar and the Cuban trés; Cuban composer and classical guitarist Leo Brouwer
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida is a Cuban composer, conductor and guitarist. He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona Casado.-Biography:...
told him that he did not need to learn more about musical technique as he already knew too much! Ochoa plays now with an eight-stringed guitar (a self-designed hybrid of an acoustic six-string and the Cuban trés). Cuerteto Patría includes his brother Humberto Ochoa on guitar, son Eglis Ochoa on maracas, William Calderón on bass, Anibal Avila on claves and trumpet, and Roberto Torres on congas.
Offshoots of the trova
The trova movement has given rise to offshoots which have grown in the fertile musical earth of Cuba and other Latin-American countries. The following are elements in the trova's great influence:- 1. The huge number of lyric compositions which have been used in all areas of Latin-American popular music.
- 2 Unforgetable musical compositions which became latin standards.
- 3. The boleroBoleroBolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
, the musical form most closely associated with the trova, and its relative the canciónCanciónCanción is a popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where many of the compositions originate. Its roots lie in Spanish popular song forms, including tiranas, polos and boleros; also in Italian light operetta, French romanza, and the slow waltz...
. - 4. The development of guitar technique in popular music.
- 5. Themes and initiatives related to politico-social events, such as AfrocubanismoAfrocubanismoAfrocubanismo: the movement in black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, as in works by the cultural anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The movement marks the time, between the two world wars, when white intellectuals in Cuba acknowledged openly the significance of African culture in Cuba....
, FilínFilínFilin was a Cuban, but US–influenced, popular song fashion of the late 40s to the early 60s. The word is derived from feeling, and is sometimes spelled feelín or even el feeling. It describes a style of post-microphone jazz-influenced romantic song .The Cuban roots of filín were in the bolero...
(feeling), and Nueva trovaNueva trovaNueva trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes....
.
Filín
The word is derived from feeling; it was a US–influenced popular musical fashion of the late 40s and the 50s. It describes a style of post-microphone jazz-influenced romantic song (crooning). Its Cuban roots were in the bolero and the canción. Some Cuban quartets, such as Cuarteto d'AidaCuarteto d'Aida
The Cuarteto d'Aida was a famous Cuban female singing group. It was founded and directed by the pianist Aida Diestro in 1952. Diestro picked four brilliant young singers to form the group: Elena Burke, Moraima Secada and the sisters Omara and Haydée Portuondo...
and Los Zafiros
Los Zafiros
Los Zafiros were a Cuban close-harmony vocal group working from 1961–1970. The group was part of the filín movement, inspired by American doo-wop groups such as The Platters...
, modelled themselves on U.S. close-harmony groups. Others were singers who had heard Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
and Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
. Filín singers included César Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez, who spent a decade in Mexico from 1949 to 1959, Frank Domínguez
Frank Domínguez
Frank Domínguez is a famous Cuban composer and a pianist from Cuba, of the filin movement...
, the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, and the great singers of boleros Elena Burke
Elena Burke
Elena Burke was a revered and popular Cuban singer of boleros and romantic ballads....
and the still-performing Omara Portuondo
Omara Portuondo
Omara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuban singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and has performed with Ignacio Piñeiro, Orquesta Anacaona, Orquesta Aragón, Nat King Cole, Adalberto Álvarez, Los Van Van, the Buena Vista...
, who both came from the Cuarteto d'Aida.
The filín movement, which originally had a place every afternoon on Radio Mil Diez, survived the first few years of the revolution quite well, but somehow did not suit the new circumstances and gradually withered, leaving its roots in jazz, romantic song and the bolero perfectly healthy. Some of its most prominent singers, such as Pablo Milanés, took up the banner of the nueva trova.
Nueva trova
The Cuban Nueva trovaNueva trova
Nueva trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes....
dates from the 1967/68, after the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes. It differed from the traditional trova, not because the musicians were younger, but because the content was, in the widest sense, political. Nueva trova is defined, not only by its connection with Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's revolution, but also by its lyrics. The lyrics attempt to escape the banalities of life (e.g. love) by concentrating on socialism, injustice, sexism, colonialism, racism and similar 'serious' issues. Silvio Rodríguez
Silvio Rodríguez
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...
and Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...
became the most important exponents of this style. Carlos Puebla
Carlos Puebla
Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
and Joseíto Fernández
Joseíto Fernández
José Fernández Diaz, September 5, 1908 - October 11, 1979 , commonly known as Joseíto Fernández was a Cuban singer and songwriter. He is the writer of well-known songs, including: "Elige tú, que canto yo", "Amor de madre", Demuéstrame tú, and Así son, boncó, as well as the more famous "Guajira...
were long-time trova singers who added their weight to the new regime, but of the two only Puebla wrote special pro-revolution songs.
The regime gave plenty of support to musicians willing to write and sing anti-U.S. or pro-revolution songs; this was quite a bonus in an era when many of the traditional musicians were finding it difficult or impossible to earn a living. In 1967 the Casa de las Américas in Havana held a Festival de la canción de protesta (protest songs). Much of the effort was spent applauding causes that would annoy the U.S. government. Tania Castellanos, a filín singer and author, wrote ¡Por Angela! in support of Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
. César Portillo de la Luz wrote Oh, valeroso Viet Nam. These were hot topics of the 1970s, but their topicality declined as time passed.
Nueva Trova, initially so popular, was dealt a blow by the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, though it was already fading. It suffered inside Cuba, perhaps from a growing disenchantment with one-party rule, and externally, from the vivid contrast with the Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s...
film and recordings. Audiences round the world have had their eyes opened to the extraordinary charm and musical quality of the older forms of Cuban music. By contrast, topical themes that seemed so relevant in the 1960s and 70s now seem dry and passé; once a theme is no longer topical, the piece rests solely on its musical quality. Those pieces of high musical and lyrical quality, amongst which Puebla's Hasta siempre
Hasta Siempre
"Hasta Siempre, Comandante, or simply "Hasta Siempre", is a 1965 Spanish song by Cuban composer Carlos Puebla. The song's lyrics are a reply to revolutionary Che Guevara's farewell letter when he left Cuba, in order to foster revolution in the Congo and later Bolivia, where he would be captured and...
stands out, will probably last as long as Cuba lasts.
Other notables
Naturally, the musicians featured here are a few notables amongst hundreds of excellent musicians living the same kind of life. No complete list exists, though the musicians listed below have been mentioned in at least one source. After the name, one or two of their best compositions are noted:- Salvador Adams (Me causa celos)
- Ángel Almenares (Por qué me engañaste?)
- José (Pepe) Banderas (Boca roja)
- Emiliano Blez Garbey (Besada por el mar)
- Julio Brito (Flor de ausencia)
- Miguel Companioni (Mujer perjura)
- Juan de Dios Hechavarria (Mujer indigna; Tiene Bayamo; Laura)
- José (Pepe) Figarola Salazar (Un beso en le alma)
- Oscar Hernández Falcón (Ella y yo; Rosa roja)
- Graciano Gómez Vargas (En falso; Yo sé de esa mujer)
- Rafael Gómez (aka Teofilito) (Pensamiento)
- Ramón Ivonet (Levanta)
- Eulalio Limonta
- Manuel Luna Salgado (La cleptómana)
- Nené Manfugás
- Rafael Saroza Valdés (Guitarra mía)
Duos, trios, groups
During a career, a musician may work in many different line-ups. Because of the limited sonority of the guitar, trova musicians preferred small groups, or solo performances. Boleros tend to benefit from two voices, primo and segundo, giving to melodic phrases a richness in contrast with the basic rhythm of the cinquilloCinquillo
A cinquillo is a typical Cuban/Caribbean rhythmic cell, derived from the contradanza and the danzón. It consists of an eighth, a sixteenth, an eighth, a sixteenth, and an eighth note. Placing this rhythm in a 2/4 measure, it obtains a strongly syncopated character from the sustained note which...
.
Duos
Guaronex y Sindo: Sindo GaraySindo Garay
Sindo Garay was born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia . He was the first, the smallest, and perhaps the longest-lived, of the trova artists taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the four greats of the trova. Sindo Garay was Spanish & Arawkan descendant...
and his son.
Floro y Miguel: Floro Zorilla and Miguel Zaballa. Outstanding in their day.
Floro y Cruz: Floro Zorilla and Juan Cruz. Cruz was a terrific baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
.
Pancho Majagua y Tata Villegas: Francisco Salvo and Carlos Villegas.
María Teresa y Zequieira: María Teresa Vera
María Teresa Vera
María Teresa Vera was a Cuban singer, guitarist and composer. She was an outstanding example of the Cuban trova movement....
and Rafael Zequeira.
Dúo Ana María y María Teresa: two female voices, Ana María García and Ma. Teresa Vera. Justa García also sang duo with each of these two women.
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo
Lorenzo Hierrezuelo was a Cuban trova musician, a singer, guitarist and composer. His face showed clear signs of Indian descent: he was an indo-mulatto . He was the son and nephew of soneros, and he grew up in the ambiance of this type of Cuban music and dance...
and María Teresa Vera.
José 'Galleguito' Parapar y Higinio Rodríguez.
Juan de la Cruz y Bienvenido León.
Manuel Luna y José Castillo.
Dúo Hermanos Enriso: Enrique 'Chungo' and Rafael 'Nené' Enriso.
Dúo Luna–Armiñan: Pablo Armiñan (primo) and Manuel Luna (segundo and guitar)
Dúo Pablito–Castillo: Pablo Armiñan (primo) and Augusto Castillo (segundo).
Dúo Pablito y Limonta: Pablo Armiñan (voz primo and guitar accompanist) and Juan Limonta (segunda, guitar and author). Extremely popular in Santiago de Cuba in the 1920s.
Dúo Juanito Valdés y Rafael Enriso.
Dúo Carbo–Quevedo: Pablo Quevedo (primo) and Panchito Carbó (segundo and guitar).
Dúo Hermanas Martí: Amelia and Bertha.
Dúo Sirique y Miguel: Alfredo 'Sirique' González and Miguel Doyble.
Los Compadres
Los Compadres
Los Compadres was a famous Cuban trova duo formed by Lorenzo Hierrezuelo in 1947. At the time Lorenzo had a singing duo with María Teresa Vera, and this partnership continued alongside the new venture. His first partner in Los Compadres was Compay Segundo , who became the second voice and tres...
: Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, first with Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.-Biography:...
, then with Rey Caney
Rey Caney
Rey Caney is a Cuban singer, guitarist and tresero. He led Cuarteto Patría for some time: this famous group is now led by Eliades Ochoa. In the middle 1950s he took over Compay Segundo's place in the duo Los Compadres, the other partner being his elder brother Lorenzo Hierrezuelo...
.
See also
- 1977 Del hondo del corazón. 20min film, Dir. Constante Diego. Figures of the traditional trova talk and sing.
- 1974 Chicho Ibáñez. 11min film, Dir. Juan Carlos Tabío. Short film on the trovador José 'Chicho' Ibáñez (1875–1981), who talks and sings at the age of 99.