and lastly.. Beny More.. Cuba's Frank Sinatra.. Cuba's greatest singer bar none.....he died in 1963 (too early) but left a legacy that will probably never be matched... i have heard about him being this super duper legend for years.. when last year i found some compilation of him singing boleros (slow love songs)... his reputation is that of being the best bolero singer of all time.. in any case its wonderful 50s cuban music and they are not all boleros..its pre-castro stuff with beny more leading an orchestra.. anyways i'll post the cd picture on the blog just for the sake of completeness but you know me.. i wanted something on vinyl and this is the album i always wanted because of the wonderful cover.... unfortunately with latin music often times its unclear when it was recorded, there are no liner notes, no listing of musicians... someone like beny deserves more but ultimately his music wins out..its just too good to suffer at the ups and downs and de-development of latin america..this record i think is a compilation of what must have been sides cut for 78s or very very early cuban lps (five of the tracks on the cd comp i got are on this album: preferi perderte , que me hace dano, oh vida, fiebre de ti and no puedo caller)...it was put out by a miami based company discuba which may have migrated from cuba after castro fell and i'm sure was set up to cater to the community of cubans that set up shop in miami post castro takeover.... who knows? they may have just taken their 78s or cuban lps and created new lps? i have two others in addition to this one...... can't find much info on the specifics of the record.. it was discuba LPD-501 and my label is light blue and i'm guessing the gold label was the original and the silver the second pressing so mine is probably a late 60s or even 70s pressing...but who cares? this stuff is hard to come by period..... the songs on this alternate some classic boleros oh vida or the wonderous que me hace dano with more fastpaced material such as "maracaibo oriental" (which features some horn breaks that sound like they could be bvsc's manuel guajiro mirabal... )... ultimately when you hear this stuff you do think "ah this is where the buena vista social club came from"..certainly ibrahim ferrer singing his slow boleros and remember he was a bolero specialist has to remind you of beny more...its intereresting to ponder that beny more stayed in cuba .. what would have happened if he had migrated to the US a la celia cruz? who knows.. he died of liver disease apparently..too much good rum i guess...my understanding is beny more recorded in cuba for rca cuba... that he had his own orchestra.. that he was black as where all his band members... that he fought against discrimination down there....that he was loyal to his band and they loved him for it....oh and that his nickname was "el barbaro".. not sure but i think it means "the great one" and that no one can deny...oh one last word.. on the cover it looks to me like he is in a car in havanna facing the sea in front of what must have been one of cuba's luxury hotels....
so much fabulous music around
Howdy!
ReplyDeleteI know this post is 14 years old but... loved your article!
Not too many people know el Benny.
'Barbaro' means 'barbarian' or the wild man.
Real name was Bartolomeo but he began his career in Mexico, subbing for Miguel Matamoros (who as losing his voice) in Conjunto Matamoros (c. 1945)
In Mexicos, Bartolo is name given to donkeys...so... he had to get a new stage name.
Benny (with two n's) is how it is engraved on his headstone at Santa Isabel de las Lajas, which is the title of a lovely guajira, my late mother's favorite.
Trumpet player is probably 'Chocolate' Armenteros, Benny's cousin.
Discuba was (is?) RCA Victor's Cuba-branded label.
The story is Benny had a contact to leave Cuba for the US, but they would not let his band leave with him so he stayed.