Antonio María Taño López

Composer and trumpeter. He worked as an arranger for popular orchestras and conducted the orchestra of the Musical Theater of La Habana, as well as that of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, ICRT.

He was born in Caimito del Guayabal, Artemisa. Between 1951-1952, he studied theory, solfège and trumpet with José Venancio Sinecio González, who served as Director of Music Bands; later he continued these studies at the Municipal Conservatory of La Habana (now Amadeo Roldán), in 1954-1955, with trumpet professor Pedro Mercado, solo trumpeter of the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana.

In 1961 he received classes in harmony and orchestration from Félix Guerrero Díaz, who graduated in composition and orchestral direction at the Paris Conservatory; in 1962 he enrolled at the Alejandro García Catarla Conservatory of Marianao, where he studied composition and orchestral direction with professors Félix Guerrero, harmony and orchestration; Dolores Torres, counterpoint and fugue; Serafín Pro, music history and musical forms; Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, orchestral conducting technique; Ninowska Fernández-Brito, in complementary piano, Carlos Fariñas, Composition.

As a trumpeter he worked between 1952-1961 in different orchestras and ensembles in his native town, among which stood out: Hollywood Swing, Julio Cueva and Serenata; the ensembles Serena de Güira de Melena, Artemiseño and Rumbavana.

In 1960 he made his first trip abroad, to the United States, with the group 'Los Rancheros. Likewise, he directed the vocal quartet Los Átomos, with which he recorded an album, made presentations on radio and television, and worked in numerous clubs and cabarets in La Habana; at the beginning of 1961 he began as a choral director, mixed and children's, and arranger in Cuban television, in which he maintained the children's program "El Mundo de los Niños", and in the same medium, Festival del Jueves. For television he orchestrated the Spanish zarzuelas '"El asombro de Damasco" and "La del manojo de rosas".

In 1962 he took on the direction of the orchestra of the Copa Room Cabaret at the Riviera Hotel, for which he wrote the music for the show Kaleidoscope, the first musical production in Cuba conceived for two orchestras, one recorded on magnetic tape and the other live. Between 1963 and 1968 he worked as musical director of the Musical Theater of La Habana, of which he was a founder.

During this period he composed the music for the musical comedies
Mi solar,
La tía de Carlos
Eleonora RIP
Teatro loco

Orchestrations
Los novios
Irma la Dulce
Pato macho and various
variety shows.

Likewise, he directed
!Oh!, la gente, Los nueve nuevos juglares
Mephistopheles
The Threepenny Opera, works by composers Federico Smith, Leo Brouwer, Enrique Ubieta and Kurt Weill, respectively.

Cinematography
During this period he wrote for Cuban cinematography the music for the animated drawings:
Cuidemos nuestras flores
La frontera
La gordita azul
Jardín productivo
Navidad 63; the medium-length film
Manuela

Feature Films
El huésped
Un día en el solar.
Vals de La Habana Vieja and
De tal Pedro, tal astilla.

Awards
Prize at the Festival de Viña del Mar, in Chile
Prize at the Cádiz Film Festival.

He composed and directed the music of the Gran Music Hall of Cuba in 1965. In France he directed the orchestra of the Olympia Theater of Paris, and that of the Katowice Radio of Leipzig, as well as that of Leningrad and the Symphony of the Moscow Broadcasting. He wrote the music for the Cuban Delegation to EXPO'67 and directed, together with Rafael Somavilla, the orchestra of the 1967 Varadero Festival, which had its second edition in 1970; from 1981, and until 1986, he was musical director of said festival.

From 1968 to 1974, he worked as an orchestral conductor for broadcasting. During this period he was a member of the jury and orchestral director of the Festival Orfeo de Oro, Bulgaria, in the years 1969, 1970 and 1971. In 1969 he participated in the World Congress of Musical Youth and the Béla Bartók Seminar, held in Hungary, and performed for French radio and television.

In 1971 he organizes, writes and directs the show Ritmo de Cuba, which was presented in Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and the USSR. From 1972 to 1973, he directed the show Son de Cuba, with which he traveled through Peru. In 1977 he was part of the Cuban delegation, as a Member of the Jury and Orchestral Director, at the Festival de Sopot, Poland.

In 1978 he participated as a jury member and orchestral director at the Lira Festival of Bratislava; In 1979, he did so at the Dresden festival and in 1980 he returned to the Orfeo de Oro in Bulgaria. That same year he writes and directs the music for the show that was presented at the Tequendama Hotel in Bogotá, Colombia.

In 1988 he was part of the jury of the Festival Mesam, Yugoslavia, and in early 1989 he traveled to Ukraine to write and direct the show Hello Cuba, which in addition to being presented in the USSR, was presented in Italy, Bulgaria and the United States.

He participated in the world congresses of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC), held in Madrid, 1986, Budapest, 1990, Liège and Maastricht, 1992, as well as in the Ibero-American Congress on Intellectual Property, in Madrid, in 1991. Between 1995-1996, he was Editorial Manager of Caribe Productions Inc.

Between 1997 and 1999 he taught classes in harmony, counterpoint, musical forms, instrumentation and orchestration, at the Vida y Movimiento Music School of the Conjunto Cultural Olín Yoliztly of Mexico.

In 2000 he was appointed musical director of the official show of the Mexican Republic De la madre tierra al cabaret, which was presented at the theater of the Hannover World Expo, Federal Republic of Germany, for which he wrote the arrangements and conducted the orchestra, accompanying singer Lila Downs.

In Mexico he made arrangements for artists and directed bands and orchestras:
Fernando de La Mora
Tomás Nom's
Mauro Calderón
Francisco Céspedes
Chamín Correa
Tania Alves (from Brazil)
Neife Peña (from Venezuela)
Banda Cuacos de Sinaloa
Treviso Symphony Orchestra, Italy

He performed tours in:
United States
Bermuda Islands
Venezuela
Costa Rica
Panama
Nicaragua
Barbados
Peru
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Chile
Mexico
Spain
France
Switzerland
Poland
Germany
Soviet Union
Canada
Belgium
Bulgaria
Yugoslavia
Hungary
Azores Islands
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Serbia
Moldova
Ethiopia
Portugal
Netherlands
Ireland
Romania
Yemen
Ukraine
Lithuania
Czech Republic
Slovakia

Works
Musical Comedy
Las mil y una noches guajiras

Incidental Music
Manuela
Preludes
Santa María del Salitre
Sin tu permiso,
Sube un poquito más
Te autorizo para amar
Un día en el solar

Some of his best-known compositions are "Te autorizo para amar", "Sin tu permiso", "Sube un poquito más" and "La batea".

More than his name, many will identify this song of his, with an easy catchiness and simple construction, that made an era, La batea. Popularized at the end of the 60s by the Hermanos Bravo, a tune with carnival airs, in which the rhythmic cell of the cha cha chá could be detected behind it, it jumped very quickly to the international arena from an unexpected angle for its author, when in 1971 the Chilean group Quilapayún versioned it for the political campaign for the Popular Unity of Salvador Allende. There were many more appropriations of La batea, one of them very particular included in one of the last albums recorded in life by Puerto Rican salsa artist Tito Rodríguez in 1972 together with his colleague Louie Ramírez.

Tony Taño also made transcriptions of popular works for the so-called oriental organ, a musical instrument with bellows from France that works with perforated cards. He wrote works of more complex construction, such as "Preludes". In the 1990s he settled in Mexico.

His best production was and will continue to be Un día en el solar (1965), by Manet, a film version of one of the most original Cuban musical comedies that brought together Tony Taño in composition and orchestral direction, novelist Lisandro Otero in the libretto and choreographer Alberto Alonso in the dances.

His reappearance in Cuba in a show occurred during the International Jazz Plaza Festival 2005, in La Habana, when he conducted at the Teatro Mella the National Symphonic Orchestra, the National Choir of Cuba and the quartet led by the renowned pianist and composer Chucho Valdés, who that day premiered the work "Canto a Dios", dedicated to the American city of New Orleans, and in a very special way to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the social neglect that increased the effects of the storm.

Tony Taño died in La Habana on January 16, 2018 at the age of 79, victim of a sudden illness.