Andrés Perfecto Eleuterio Galdino Confesor Hechevarría Callava

Composer, outstanding tres player, orchestrator and Cuban orchestra conductor.

Niño Rivera was born in Pinar del Río. With Joaquín González he studied music theory and solfege; with Ernesto Muñoz Bouffartique, harmony; and with Vicente González-Rubiera "Guyún", guitar and harmony. Years later he studied harmony, counterpoint and form with Enrique Bellver, and orchestration with maestros Félix Guerrero and Evelio Landa.

They say that as a child someone in the family saw him "tinkering" with the tres of his uncle Nicomedes and once aware of it, the adult later surprised him hiding while "plucking the tres." Thus began the history of this "child prodigy," who at the age of nine joined the Boloña sextet in Havana, and at 12 began conducting his uncle Nicomedes' Caridad septet, where he started as a tres player.

He moved to Havana in 1926; he alternated playing tres in the septets Segundo Boloña and Cárdenas, among others. In 1929, back in Pinar del Río, he reorganized the Caridad Septet with Miguelito Cuní as singer. In 1935 he traveled with this group to Havana for some performances. Two years later he joined the famous Septeto Bolero of Tata Gutiérrez which he later directed.

In 1942 he founded his Septeto Rey de Reyes with which he worked until 1945, the year he transformed it into Conjunto de Niño Rivera. In his septet he included a harmonic vocal quartet, a unique experience in the history of son groupings of this type.

Around that time he became linked to the group of composers and performers known as "los muchachos del feeling": José Antonio Méndez, César Portillo de la Luz, Elena Burke, Jorge Mazón, Justo Fuentes and Frank Emilio, among others.

In 1944 he wrote El jamaiquino, a son that became immediately popular and today constitutes one of his most widely distributed works internationally. Among his early compositions that reached vinyl was the montuno son Simani (recorded by René Álvarez and his ensemble Los Astros in 1948).

In his arrangements for various groups, especially conjuntos, he experimented with jazz ingredients fused with popular Cuban musical genres. He created a style he called cubibop, a mixture of bebop with Cuban music, which was reflected in several recordings of arrangements made in the 1940s and 1950s.

The initiative lacked promotion, and like the batanga rhythm created later by Bebo Valdés, it did not become popular, but, as Leonardo Acosta said, "it was a stimulating experience for musicians who continued working in that innovative line." With his conjunto he recorded in 1949 a mambo of his own composition titled Cubibop.

In the late 1940s, his compositions conceived within the cubibop style became known through recordings; among them Átomo, composed in collaboration with Luis Yáñez in 1949, performed by the famous Orquesta Casino de la playa. This orchestra, with its singers Roberto Faz and Roberto Espí, was the first to disseminate boleros by the main feeling composers, always with arrangements by Niño Rivera: Tú mi adoración, Quiéreme y verás, and Ayer la vi llorar (José A. Méndez); Realidad y fantasía and Nuestra canción (Portillo de la Luz); Eres mi felicidad (Niño Rivera), to mention only the most well-known.

At the Mil Diez radio station of the Popular Socialist Party, Rivera performed with the Loquibambia Swing group, directed by pianist Frank Emilio, with Omara Portuondo as singer.

In his humble home in the Havana neighborhood of Párraga, "descargas" took place where the muchachos del feeling sang and played for hours, lit by candles or oil lamps, as the house lacked electricity.

With his conjunto he made recordings in 1952 with singer Pepe Reyes (1932-1981), including his bolero De mí para ti.

He traveled with José Antonio Méndez to Mexico in 1956. Méndez introduced him to orchestra conductors from that country –Mario Ruíz Armengol, José Sabre Marroquín, Luis García Esquivel, Chilo Morán, Arturo Núñez, Pedro Beltrán Ruíz and Gonzalo Curiel– for whom he wrote numerous orchestrations adjusting to the requirements of any format: string groups, jazz bands, conjuntos or informal groups.

His demonstrated versatility and originality led Mexican record labels RCA Victor, Musart, Columbia, Peerless, Decca, Margo and Seeco to contract him for numerous orchestral works.

Upon returning to Cuba he continued his work as orchestrator for Ernesto Duarte, the CMQ orchestra directed by maestro Enrique González Mantici, Arcaño and his Maravillas, Riverside with Tito Gómez, Hermanos Castro and the Conjunto Casino of Roberto Espí.

In 1956 Chico O'Farrill included El jamaiquino in the recording production Cuban Jazz King. The following year Niño Rivera participated in the now famous album Descargas cubanas by Israel López "Cachao", which includes his composition Oye mi tres montuno, with an extensive participation of his on the tres.

He directed musically and played tres on the long-playing record Cuban Jam Session Vol. 3, released by the Cuban record label Panart, in which also participated: Orestes (Macho) López, piano; Santiago El Negro Vivar, trumpet; Emilio Peñalver, saxophone; Richard Egües, flute; Salvador (Bol) Vivar, bass; Guillermo Barreto, timbales; Rogelio (Yeyo) Iglesias, bongos; Tata Güines, tumbadora; and Gustavo Tamayo, güiro.

The 1950s established him as one of Cuba's finest arrangers. He received work commissions from orchestra conductors, soloists and groups from various countries, assignments that were not always credited to his name.

In 1958 he made a long-playing album with singer Miguelito Cuní now considered anthological featuring sones by Bienvenido Julián Gutiérrez (Convergencia, Los tres Juanes, El cielo tenebroso, El diablo tun tun, among other pieces) in traditional septet format in which numerous of his tres solos appear.

He formed a new conjunto around that time which he called Niño Rivera y su Con-bán (conjunto-banda) with which he made recordings with singers such as Orlando Vallejo, Luis Yáñez, Gil Valladares and Frank García. With his group he performed in several countries after the triumph of the Revolution.

He participated in the formation of the Conjunto Estrellas de Chocolate in 1959 and took part as tres player, arranger and composer in its first long-playing record (Fiesta cubana) in 1960. The Orquesta Aragón popularized his cha-cha-cha No quiero líos around that time.

In 1961 he participated in the album Descargas cubanas -Cachao 1961, with Israel López "Cachao", Isaac Oviedo and Chocolate Armenteros.

In the 1960s he directed studio orchestras on numerous records, both backing singers: Moraima Secada, Omara Portuondo, Pepe Reyes, Ela Calvo, Miguel de Gonzalo, Reinaldo Henríquez, and on instrumentals: Prague series, Cuba te saluda, 1961-62. He continued his work as arranger for conjuntos and orchestras, participated as special guest on various recording productions and performed with his conjunto until 1986. In 1979 he participated in the Estrellas de Areito series as arranger and musician. In 1981 he presented a long-playing record with singer Miguelito Cuní and a group of first-rate musicians, such as Rubén González (piano), Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal and Jorge Varona (trumpets).

One of the contemporary masters of the tres, Francisco "Pancho" Amat, gave this opinion about his style: "El Niño incorporates into the tres the filigree harmonization, something extremely difficult given the specific conditions of the instrument. (…) He achieves it through talent and effort. He goes through the strange notes of the chord, bordering, weaving on the periphery and never through the central triad, which would be normal; his sonority is exotic. And if someone wants to learn the secrets of the tres they should listen to him, learn from his recordings."

Niño Rivera wrote a Método de tres (Tres Method), still unpublished, which contains the history of the instrument; string arrangement; tuning; range; major, minor and chromatic scales; lessons for all keys; styles of playing son and examples of pieces.

In 1986 he finished composing a concerto for tres and orchestra that he was unable to premiere. He died in Havana on January 27, 1996.

Among his notable works as a composer, the boleros Fiesta en el cielo, Carnaval de amor, Amor en festival, Mi realidad eres tú, No me hagas culpable stand out; and the sones Los caminantes, Juan José, Jóvenes y viejos and Azúcar con ají.

The life and work of the composer of pieces such as El Jamaiquino (his best-known work), Carnaval del amor, Monte adentro and Tú y mi música, have left their marks on the history of Cuban music.

About Niño Rivera, Pancho Amat himself has said: "With only three sounds he achieved the harmonic image offered… through talent and effort. He went through notes foreign to the chord, bordering, weaving on the periphery and never through the central triad, as would be normal. He created another style of exotic sonority."

Rivera's work encompassed genres such as son, guaracha, mambo, bolero and canción. He made orchestrations in Mexico for Mario Ruiz Armengol, José Sabre Marroquín and Luis García Esquivel, among others, and for record labels RCA Victor, Musart, Columbia, Peerless, Decca, Margo and Seeco. In Cuba, he did them for orchestras of Ernesto Duarte, CMQ, Arcaño y sus Maravillas, Riverside, Hermanos Castro and Conjunto Casino. When he died at the age of 76, on January 27, 1996, he was directing his own group.

This great musician, whom researcher Leonardo Acosta labeled as "the great forgotten one of Cuban music," should be more remembered for his indisputable contributions to Cuban music.