Armando Romeu González

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He was born in La Habana. Descendant of a family of great music cultivators on the Island. He studied music with his father, Armando Romeu Marrero, and also with Alfredo Brito and Antonio Arcaño.

In 1919 at eight years old he joined as first piccolo player in the Municipal Band of Regla; in 1924 he alternated at the Jockey Club with the orchestra of American Ted Naddy. Later he worked as a saxophonist at the Céspedes cinema with pianist Nacho Alemany, and at the Casino Nacional he worked with Earl Carpenter's band.

Armando Romeu, one of the foundational figures of Cuban music, became involved in 1926 with an orchestra that performed jazz.

Between 1929 and 1930, Armando Romeu worked with the orchestras Hermanos Palau, Los Diplomáticos de Froilán Maya and with the Siboney, by Alfredo Brito (with this one he performed at the Country Club), then composed of Julio Brito, Paquito Isla, Mario Álvarez, René Patzi, Ángel Mercado, Manuel Godínez, Armando López, Antonio Argudín, José Fernández and Luis Fernández.

With this orchestra he traveled in 1932, along with Trío Matamoros, to Spain. The Siboney Orchestra performed in Paris at the Empire Theater, alongside Maurice Chevalier in Montmartre, and ended its tour in Lisbon, Portugal.

He returned to Cuba in November 1932. In 1933, Romeu founded his own orchestra, with which he debuted at the Edén Concert (later Zombie Club), with Rita Montaner and the rumberos René and Estela, a group that dissolved shortly after.

Armando Romeu created a second orchestra, which would perform for the first time at the Cabaret Mitsouko, and of which were part Luis Escalante, Antonio and Julio Temprano, A. Gelabert, Amado Valdés, Emilio Peñalver, Jesús Pía, Alberto Jiménez Rebollar, Ernesto Romeu, Merito Reyes and Juan Castro.

In 1936 this orchestra, which performed at the Hotel Nacional, began a tour through South America, which started in Lima, Peru, where they performed at the cabaret La Cabaña; later they traveled to Santiago de Chile, and there they worked with the dance couple composed of Julio Richard and Carmita Ortiz and Trío Matamoros; the tour continued in 1937 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In this country the orchestra disbanded, and Romeu went on to play tenor saxophone with Paul Wyer's jazzband. Shortly after he returned to Cuba, and here he joined the Casino de la Playa orchestra.

In 1940, trumpeter Luis Escalante and Armando Romeu founded the Bellamar Orchestra, with which they debuted at the Sans-Souci cabaret, composed of Armando Romeu, Luis and Leopoldo Escalante (Pucho), José Patiño, Armando López, Amado Valdés, Adalberto Escrich, Gustavo Mas, Ernesto Grenet, Félix Guerrero, Antonio Núñez, Tomás Berrechenea and René Márquez.

When the Sans-Souci closed, the Bellamar disbanded. Romeu founded a new group, which performed, between 1942 and 1967, at the Cabaret Tropicana, and which was composed, in different stages, by Alberto Jiménez (Platanito), Dagoberto Jiménez (Raanito), Alejandro Vivar (El Negro Vivar), Pedro Rodríguez (El Guajiro), Luis Escalante, Nilo Argudín and Manuel Godínez, and dozens of other musicians.

In 1967, Romeu was one of the founders and director of the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music, which had in its roster, among others, as members Chucho Valdés, piano; Arturo Sandoval and Jorge Varona, trumpets; Paquito D'Rivera, saxophone; Oscarito Valdés, singer and percussionist; Carlos Emilio Morales, guitar; Enrique Plá, drums; and Guillermo Barreto, timpani. He was director of the Orchestra of Modern Music of Santa Clara. He taught classes in Nicaragua and Moscow. With pianist Frank Emilio he prepared a method to teach sighted composers to write for blind musicians, and a new Braille notation system to teach harmonic structures.

Recognized and admired, Armando Romeu held several distinctions upon his death, among them the Félix Várela Order of the first degree, one of the highest honors granted by the Cuban State to outstanding personalities in the sphere of culture and the arts.

Works: Bob City Mambo, Mambo a la Kenton, Mocambo and Momento español.