Benny Moré and Ibrahim Ferrer, two greats that February remembers

February 20, 2021

February is a month that smells of music, of Cuban spirit, of natural talent, as it remembers the death of El Bárbaro del Ritmo, Benny Moré, the greatest Cuban musician of the 20th century, and the birth of Ibrahim Ferrer, another figure who filled Cubans with joy through his contagious and cheerful voice, despite the blows that struck his life.

A legend of Cuban music, authentic, witty, brilliant at composing and unpunctual, Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez, who died on February 19, 1963, possessed an innate capacity for musical composition and thus managed to unite his tribe, the Banda Gigante that he directed with his baton and that placed him in the heart of the Cuban people.

His musical influences came from his cradle, from his neighborhood Pueblo Nuevo, in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Cienfuegos. Benny knew how to play to perfection the insundi, the yuka drums, those of makuta and bembé, invokers of Orishas deities, while at the same time he sang and danced a son, a guaracha as well as a rumba. His great-great-grandfather was the first king of the congos in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, and that heritage constituted a notable influence in his professional and personal development.

Benny always returned to his roots, on the basis of them he grew as a musician until becoming an icon venerated by Cuba, Mexico and countless countries in which he displayed his talent.

Dear Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Santa Isabel. / Lajas, my beloved corner, town where I was born / Lajas, I have for you this, my heartfelt song. / You were always distinguished by your sincere acts, / Your sons are gentlemen and your women, proud, / For that I shout: Long live my Lajas with its lajeros, lajeros.

He had no other musical training than that. He did not know how to read musical scores and to write his compositions he relied on his musicians, who brought to the staff the themes that became popular.

From his success at La Corte Suprema del Arte—where he performed on two occasions until obtaining first prize—his other schools were the Conjunto Cauto, which he joined under the direction of Mozo Borgellá; the trio Matamoros, which launched him to fame and with which he traveled to Mexico.

Upon the group's return to Cuba, Benny decides to postpone his return to the island and try his luck solo in that nation, where he participated in around 16 films from the golden age of Mexican cinema, and there he also managed to conquer the greatest stages.

Back to his beloved Cuba, he founded the Banda Gigante in 1953, with which he would tour the world alongside other greats of Cuban music, singer Fernando Álvarez, trumpeter Alfredo (Chocolate) Armenteros, trombonist Generoso Jiménez and drummer Rolando Laserie, among others.

His strong voice, sensual, melancholic, is remembered by this people who applauded him so much and do not forget him. Always in a jacket down to just above the middle of the thigh and wide pants with suspenders, hat and the baton he directed, El Bárbaro del Ritmo baptized a stage for the last time with his Cuban spirit, authenticity and intuitive talent on February 16, 1963, in the town of Palmira, Las Villas, accompanied by La Banda Gigante, three days before saying goodbye.

IBRAHIM FERRER AND THE BOLERO
From Benny's orchestra came another great of Cuban music, who as a child dreamed of being a doctor. In his early years of life he sold sweets and popcorn to sustain himself. Besides, he sang in the streets of his native Santiago de Cuba. Success and recognition came to his life after more than six decades of existence, after hearing many times that his voice was not suitable for the bolero. However, ninety-four years after his birth, on February 20, 1927, Ibrahim Ferrer counts as one of the emblematic voices of the Cuban and international musical landscape.

His nearly eighty years of existence were marked by sacrifice. Since the death of his mother, at an early age, he founded together with his cousin a group called Jóvenes del Son, which was dedicated to entertaining private parties. Thus he sustained himself when he began to receive invitations from various musicians to join their orchestras, the most renowned in Santiago.

Upon his arrival in the capital Havana, he also formed part of important groupings, among them the Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, of Benny Moré. Then, until his retirement from music in 1991, his talent remained in the hands of Los Bocucos, directed by Pacho Alonso.

Ibrahim Ferrer demonstrated his talent for performing various genres, and above all, the bolero, which he loved so much. (Taken from cancioneros.com)

During that stage of his career, Ferrer never felt completely fulfilled. Performing guarachas, sones and other genres did not satisfy his yearning for boleros. Until, after shining shoes and facing no few sorrows despite his talent, the mastery of this musician again drew applause from the music-loving public of Cuba and the world starting in 1998.

It is said that when the idea of Buena Vista Social Club was born, Juan de Marcos González, musical director of the Sierra Maestra group, who served as an advisor for arrangements and recording of that compendium of Cuban stars, sought him out to be part of the recordings of that iconic group.

From that historic union came the album Afro-Cuban All Stars, in which Ferrer demonstrated his exceptional qualities as a singer, intervening in 12 of the 14 tracks that compose it.

Afro-Cuban All Stars won a Grammy Award. A year later, the popular musician recorded solo the album Buena Vista Social Club presenta a Ibrahim Ferrer, which, produced by Ry Cooder, sold a million and a half copies.

Finally, Ibrahim Ferrer demonstrated his talent for performing various genres and, above all, the bolero that he loved so much.

But the accolades would not stop, his second album, Buenos Hermanos, won a Grammy in 2004.

At the time of his death, in 2005, the formidable artist who filled audiences and made the greatest stages around the world explode in applause, was fulfilling his dream of recording an album completely of boleros: Mi sueño. A bolero songbook.

To remember the prominent place of this great of Cuban music is to not let his dream die of transmitting, with one of the most authentic and heartfelt genres, the deepest roots of Cuban spirit and of the artists of this Caribbean land, cradle of masterful creators.