Lecuona, Ernesto de Cuba

Featuring Orley Cruz . Siboney . Bebo . Chucho Valdés . La comparsa . Grupo Corpo . Como Presiento . Emilio Carretero . Damisela encantadora . Lecuona Cuban Boys . Oye Mi Rumba . Gitanerias . Compay Segundo . Para Vigo me voy . Ernst Burns . The Breeze and I . Justin Sanner . La Cárdenense . Malaguena . Lecuona

zarzuela.net : Lives have middles as well as beginnings and ends. From about the age of six Ernesto Lecuona’s was dominated by work. The endless round of concert tours, entrepreneurial ventures and occasional spells of relaxation at his beloved Cuban ranch, La comparsa – named after one of his earliest and most famous piano pieces – is blurred here.

Answers : As for his abilities as a performer, Dyer observed that he was capable of creating great music, but his piano performances ultimately ranged from excellent to quite bad. “Lecuona’s best music is colorful and tuneful, sultry and firey by turns; he shows considerable ingenuity in imitating idiomatic guitar effects on the piano,” wrote Dyer.

Yayo Salva Musical : Ernesto Lecuona is the most important Cuban composer. His solid formation as pianist and classic composer gave him the opportunity to acquire a singular musical style in which match together the Latin taste and the technical rigor. As classic composer must be detached his “Suite Andalucía”, from which pieces like Malaguena very soon would pass to the popular repertoire.

salsasf.com : “In the 1940s I listened to alot of jazz and it left an influence on me. We began to cultivate jazz in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s with the *filin* (feeling) movement. used to play on radio station Mil Diez and in the rehearsal studio *muchachos y muchachas* who were into *filin* would gather. They wrote songs that drew from jazz in its compositional ideas and stirred up a popular current.” (Frank Emilio Flynn)

BNET : Juan Pablo Torres ” The old military bands, with their profusion of brass instruments provided the original flavor for such sonority and gave rise to the orchestras composed of two clarinets, cornet, valve or slide trombone, and ophicleide. This instrumental combination–known as orquesta típica (typical orchestra) or orquesta de viento (brass orchestra)….”

Cuba Headlines : On the other hand Troveros de Asieta appears as such in December 1991 in the Isla de La Palma, from a clear Cuban cultural heritage that still survives in the island. Their members have known how to collect this heritage from their forefathers, representing one of the most characteristic musical proposals that appeared in the Canary Islands over the last few years.

Francisco Aguabella : Legendary Conguero Francisco Aguabella first left Cuba in the 1950’s to perform with Katherine Dunham in the Shelley Winters movie “Mambo” filmed in Italy. After touring with Katherine Dunham he came to the United States and performed and toured with Peggy Lee for the next seven years.

Todo Tango : They used to say that Pilar Arcos had a nice voice, figure, pleasantness and charm. She was a ditty singer, but like others, included tangos in her songbook. Pilar was born in La Habana, Cuba, and was daughter of one of the owners of the then popular Pubillones circus, known throughout the country.