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Rosendo
Ruiz
The
Don Quixote of Cuban music
BY
RAFAEL LAM —Special for Granma International—
CHA-CHA-CHA
fever was in fashion almost 50 years ago; it was
heard on jukeboxes and the radio; as well as Enrique
Jorrín’s La Engañadora (The Cheat) there were
two other big hits: "Rico vacilón"
(Wicked Joker) and "Los Marcianos" (The
Martians) both by Roden Rosendo Ruíz Quevedo.
Rosendo,
who will be 85 years old on October 16, didn’t
only write 38 chá-chá-chás, but also rumbas,
mambos, guarachas, ballads, sones,
marches, guapachá plus 28 boleros — a
grand total of some 300 compositions, 150 of which
were recorded. He’s one of the originators of the
1940’s feeling genre.
His
song "Hasta mañana vida mia" (Until
tomorrow, my life) was the farewell anthem of
feeling aficionados in Havana’s Hammel Alley:
Until tomorrow, my life/How sad it is to leave you
like this/until tomorrow, when on your lips/I can
plant a welcoming kiss.
As
well as "Rico vacilón" and "Los
Marcianos", Roseno wrote two other well-known
chá-chá-chás — "Los carinosas"
(Affectionate Ones) and "Los fantasmas"
(Ghosts) plus "Amarren al loco" (Tie Up
that Crazy Thing) in 1956, arranged by Rene Touzet.
(New York music specialist Ned Sublette reminded me
that the 1956 song’s introduction features a theme
that went on to be very popular in the 1960’s and
was used in thousands of rock and roll tunes;
"Louie Louie" is a good example).
People
are going crazy/nobody knows if things will ever be
the same/ and the word on the street is/that
chá-chá-chá’s the one to blame (recorded by
Fajardo y sus Estrellas).
Ruíz
Quevedo is the son of one of the five great founders
of trova: Rosendo Ruíz Suarez 1885-1963). He is
famous for such numbers as "Junto a un
cañaveral"(Alongside the Sugar Planatation) by
Barroso with La Sensación; "La chaucha"
(Unripe) from Orquestra Aragón; "Mares y
arena" (Seas and Sand) by José Parapar; and
"Residencia" (Home), the first Latin
American workers’ anthem.
Those
singing Rosendito’s songs include Paulina Alvarez,
Alberto Aroche with Cheo Belén, Eva Garza, Olga
Rivero, Bobby Capó, Orlando Vallejo, Vicentico
Valdés, Aurelio Reinoso, Oscar D’León, René
Alvarez, Miguelito Cuní. And bands such as Jorrín,
América, Aragón, Guzmán, Arsenio, Tokio Cuban
Boys, Bebo Valdés. In Mexico, 1955, he received the
Wurltizer Prize for the sweeping success of
"Rico vacilón" and "Los
Marcianos" played by the América band. X.E.W.
radio’s most popular program, featuring the
Jorrín and his band, was called Rico vacilón (a
much-used word in Mexico).
Apart
from a huge body of work, Rosendo has been something
of a Don Quixote of Cuban music — breaking lances,
tilting against the wind, confronting exploitative
merchandizing monopolies, author’s rights and
detractors.
"I
was a member of Musicabana, an publishing
association supported by workers’ leader Lazaro
Pena and run by Luis Yáñez. It publicized
feeling and chá-chá-chá throughout Latin
America, Europe and the United States. We also had
help from Mario Bauzá, Machito, Vicentico Valdés,
Gerardo Piloto and others. It was a way of
globalizing chá-chá-chá and Cuban songs."
In
1967 Rosendo was elected vice president of the
Society of Composers and Musical Authors. In 1980,
together with Jorrín, he was awarded the Latin
American Network of Record Reviewers and the Mexican
Record Industry prize, for 25 years of maintaining
the profile of Cuban music on the American
continent.
When
the time comes to write the history of those who
defended Cuban music, we will have to include
Rosendo Ruíz Quevedo, along with titans of culture
such as Alejo Carpentier, Fernando Ortiz plus all
those who continue to give their support to Cuban
music. When many intellectuals have looked towards
Europe and the United States for inspiration, those
researchers placed their bets on Cuba, and time has
proved them right.
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