Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez

Known as Benny Moré or El Bárbaro del Ritmo or El Sonero Mayor de Cuba, he was a Cuban singer and composer.
In addition to an innate musical sense, he was endowed with a fluid tenor voice that he colored and phrased with great expressiveness. Moré was a master of all genres of Cuban music, but he particularly stood out in son montuno, mambo, and bolero. Without formal training in technique, he directed his large orchestra, giving it a distinctly Cuban character. He toured, at the head of his band, which he called his tribe, throughout many American countries. Tall and thin. He dressed in a very peculiar manner, crowned by an enormous hat.

He was born in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood of the city of Santa Isabel de las Lajas, in what was then the province of Las Villas, today the province of Cienfuegos, in central Cuba.

He was the oldest of 18 siblings from a humble Afro-Cuban peasant family. It is said that his maternal great-great-grandfather, Gundo, was a descendant of the king of a Congolese tribe who was captured at age nine by slave traders and sold to the owner of a Cuban plantation, named Ramón Paredes. Gundo then became known as Ta Ramón Gundo Paredes. When he became property of Count Moré, owner of the central La Santísima Trinidad, his name was changed to Ta Ramón Gundo Moré. He was later emancipated and died as a freedman at the age of 94.

The surname of the maternal great-great-grandfather was preserved because all of Moré's maternal ancestors—his great-grandmother, Julia; his grandmother, Patricia, and his mother, Virginia—as well as the musician himself, were born from illicit unions, most of them with white men, who did not acknowledge their children. Beny Moré's father was a man named Silvestre Gutiérrez.

Bartolomé learned to play guitar in his childhood. According to his mother Virginia Moré's testimony, he made his first instrument at age six, using a board and a thread spool. He abandoned school at a very early age to dedicate himself to farm work.

At age 16, in 1935, he became part of his first musical group. In 1936, when he was 17 years old, he left his hometown and moved to Havana, where he made a living selling "averías," that is, spoiled fruits and vegetables, as well as medicinal herbs. Six months later he returned to Las Lajas, where he worked cutting sugarcane with his brother Teodoro. With the money he earned and his brother's savings, he bought his first decent guitar.

In 1940 he returned to Havana. He lived precariously, playing in bars and cafés and then passing the hat around. His first success was winning a radio contest. In the early 1940s, the radio station CMQ had a program called Corte Suprema del Arte, whose winners were hired and given the opportunity to record and sing their songs. The losers were interrupted with the sound of a bell, without being allowed to finish their performance. On his first appearance, the bell rang just as Benny had started singing. However, he competed again later and won first prize. Then he got his first steady job with the Conjunto "Cauto," led by Mozo Borgellá. He also sang successfully on radio station CMZ with Lázaro Cordero's Sexteto "Fígaro." In 1944 he debuted on station 1010 with the Cuarteto "Cuato."

Ciro Rodríguez, from the famous Trío Matamoros, heard Beny Moré sing at the bar El Templete and was very impressed. Shortly thereafter, because of a sudden illness of Miguel Matamoros just before a performance, Borgellá sent Beny to replace him. After this almost casual incorporation, Beny would remain connected to the Matamoros for years, with whom he made numerous recordings. He replaced Miguel Matamoros as lead singer, who dedicated himself exclusively to directing the group.

In June 1945 he traveled to Mexico with the Conjunto Matamoros, where he performed at two of the most famous cabarets of the era, the Montparnasse and the Río Rosa. He made several recordings. Although the Conjunto Matamoros returned to Havana, Moré remained in Mexico. It seems that there he acquired his stage name, at the suggestion of Rafael Cueto.

In 1946 Benny Moré married Mexican nurse Juana Bocanegra Durán and his best man was the renowned Mexican singer Miguel Aceves Mejía. For a time he performed at the Río Rosa as part of the Dueto Fantasma, with Lalo Montané. Also during this period he recorded for the RCA Victor record company the songs "Me voy pal pueblo" and Desdichado, with the orchestra of Mariano Mercerón.

With Dámaso Pérez Prado he recorded "babarabatiri, anabacoa, locas por el mambo, viejo cañengo, el suave, maría cristina, pachito eche" among other songs. He became known as El Príncipe del Mambo. With Pérez Prado he also recorded "Dolor carabalí," which Benny Moré himself considered his best recording with the king of mambo, and he never wanted to record again.

At the end of 1950 he returned to Cuba. Although he was a star in several Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, he was barely known in his homeland. The song Bonito y sabroso was his first recording in Cuba and his first success. He alternated live performances for the Cadena Oriental radio station with trips to Havana to record at RCA studios. Between 1950 and 1951 he recorded many other songs, such as La cholanguengue, Candelina Alé, Rabo y oreja, among others.

In Havana he also worked for the RHC Cadena Azul radio station, with Bebo Valdés's orchestra, who introduced him to a new style called batanga. The program's host, Ibrahim Urbino, gave him the nickname El Bárbaro del Ritmo (the reason seems to be that Beny performed a number titled "¡Ah, Bárbara!" for this station). He had the opportunity to record with Sonora Matancera, but declined the offer because he was not especially interested in their musical style.

When the batanga craze passed, Moré was hired by Radio Progreso to perform with Ernesto Duarte's orchestra. In addition to radio, he performed in dance halls, cabarets, and parties.

In 1952 he recorded with the Orquesta Aragón, from Cienfuegos, which he helped introduce to the Havana music world. He broke with Ernesto Duarte when he discovered that the latter avoided taking him to performances on Saturdays and Sundays because he was Black, and he decided to found his own orchestra.

The first performance of Benny Moré's Banda Gigante took place on the CMQ radio station's program Cascabeles Candado. The band was composed of more than 40 musicians and was only comparable in size to Xavier Cugat's big band.

It should be noted that the Banda Gigante, though large, had a unique melodic organization of its kind, and they had the talent to improvise whenever their director Benny Moré decided.

Between 1954 and 1955 the Banda Gigante became immensely popular. Between 1956 and 1957 they toured Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, and the United States, where they performed at the Oscar ceremony. In Havana they performed at the most celebrated dance halls, such as La Tropical and La Sierra.

When the Cuban Revolution triumphed, unlike other Cuban musicians and intellectuals, he chose to remain on the island. In 1960 he also began performing at the Night and Day cabaret. He was offered a tour of Europe, which Moré rejected due to fear of flying (not surprising given that he had previously been involved in three airplane accidents).

Between 1958 and 1962 the health of El Bárbaro del Ritmo deteriorated. His doctor and friend, Dr. Luis Ruiz Fernández, diagnosed him with serious liver cirrhosis. The patient took care of his condition by stopping the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but he did not take the necessary rest; quite the opposite: he increased his musical activity. His presence was constant at dances, cabarets, radio, and television, and despite his physical strength, his body grew weaker each day.

During these years he performed at the Liceo de Consolación del Sur, at the white and Black societies of San Juan y Martínez, and at the Spanish colony of Pinar del Río. He made exhausting trips to the eastern provinces to perform in Guantánamo, Manzanillo, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Holguín, and in his beloved town of Vertientes, Regla, Güira de Melena, and Marianao. As was typical of him, these places were scenes of great triumphs, especially at the traditional dances in the gardens of the Tropical and Polar breweries, at the Salón Mambí of Tropicana, and at the monumental parties called Papel y Tinta, organized by the Periódico Revolución and held throughout the Paseo del Prado in Havana, where the best groups and orchestras gathered, along with dancers from all over Cuba. And as if that were not enough, his very Cuban voice was always present in Havana's nightlife: the cabarets Alí Bar Club, Sierra, La Campana, Night and Day; the Habana Libre and Riviera hotels, and the fabulous Tropicana, demanded him again and again.

Benny was exhausted, but he did not rest: he was also seen announced in the América, Martí, and Tosca theaters, and was guest of honor at the First Festival of Cuban Popular Music, held in 1962 at the Teatro Amadeo Roldán (former Auditórium).

The exhausted and sick Benny Moré had so many commitments to his people that during those years the myth of his informality grew strong. But his audience and those who knew him well, knew that this circumstantial informality was not the most representative aspect of his valuable artistic life. Evidence of this is that he continued offering the best of his art to the land that gave him birth, until the last days of his eventful existence.

The Revolution triumphed, and despite already being sick, Benny had an improvement and did not stop working hard, always performing for his beloved people. Guantánamo, Havana, Regla, Güira de Melena, Marianao, Manzanillo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Morón, Vertientes, were the scenes of his triumphs and above all we must highlight his successes at the dances at La Tropical. Several months passed in the final days of 1959 when Benny went to his hometown and in a competitive bet to see who could drink the most, he began early in the day to consume Tequila with his friends. After this incident and after a few days of rest, he recovered and went back to performing.

Benny began in 1960 at the Night and Day and maintained contact at the Sierra, he also performed at popular dances in the provinces of Matanzas, Santa Clara, Camagüey, and Oriente. Despite his great successes and excessive work, Benny shared some of his leisure time with his close friend Dr. Luis Ruiz. At the beginning of the Literacy Campaign, Fidel Castro met with Benny, with the purpose of having him perform at the Varadero Amphitheater, where every Thursday different shows were provided to literacy workers. During the entire time that campaign lasted, Benny never missed a Thursday, and always punctually entertaining the audience, thus fulfilling his word to Fidel.

During 1962 the 8000 box offices of Varadero were inaugurated, a major work that made the wonderful Playa Azul accessible to all the people and Benny assumed the responsibility of entertaining the inauguration festivities, while continuing to delight the public at the cabarets and fulfilling recording contracts and dances.

At the end of 1962, Benny and his Banda Gigante were proposed to make an extensive tour of some European countries, but he declined the invitation: the ravages of his disease were already evident on the face of the greatest son singer. On December 31, 1962 and January 1, 1963, Benny and his orchestra performed in Fomento, Las Villas, and later returned to Havana, to rest for several weeks.

His last performance with his own orchestra was in the town of Palmira, Las Villas, on February 16, 1963. He had his first cough up of blood in Colón, and once in Havana they went directly to La Cumbre at Benny's request to see his children (sensing his approaching death). He had only a few weeks of life left, although his fighting spirit kept him on his feet. Very seriously ill, on Monday the 18th at dawn he became worse again, so the doctor decided to admit him provisionally to the Emergency Hospital. Here he was administered plasma and starting at 1:00 pm that same day he fell into a coma. He was transferred to room H, bed 22 where he did not recover. He remained unconscious until Tuesday the 19th at 9:15 when he died at the young age of forty-three.

At 12:15 the funeral procession departed accompanied by thousands of men and women from the people toward the location at Prado and Ánimas, where the National Union of Workers in Art and Entertainment was located. His brothers delivered to the SINTAE secretary the Stetson hat and the cane, which Benny used as a baton, so that both items would be delivered to the SINTAE Museum. Numerous people went to the hospital center, day and night, to find out about Benny's health from medical reports, before these were officially published by the press, radio, and television.

At the express request of the artist, his remains were buried in his hometown, Santa Isabel de las Lajas. Throughout the entire route of the caravan along the Central Highway, towns and cities virtually paralyzed their activities to bid farewell to their idol. Once in his town, in the La Guinea neighborhood, the Sociedad de los Congos bid him farewell with a solemn Mayombe funeral rite of Bantu origin, based on flags to open the roads and drive away evil spirits. On February 20th at 4:00 in the afternoon he was buried in the cemetery of this town.

Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré, Benny, was bohemian, wandering, sincere, exuberant, a womanizer, chauvinist, sensual, tender, violent, a spendthrift, but above all, an authentic Cuban.

He died in Cuba on February 19, 1963 from liver cirrhosis.

Posthumous Tributes
Beny Moré appears as a character in the novel La isla de los amores infinitos (Grijalbo 2006), by Cuban writer Daína Chaviano, who also concludes her novel with a chapter titled "Hoy como ayer," one of the best interpretations of who was called El Sonero Mayor de Cuba, although he was also known as El Bárbaro del Ritmo.

Also in 2006 the film El Beny came out, which is a fictional account of Moré's life. The music is by Los Van Van, Chucho Valdés, and the group Orishas, among others.

Some Compositions
"Bonito y sabroso," mambo
"Santa Isabel de las Lajas," son montuno
"Qué bueno baila usted," son montuno
"Cienfuegos," guajira
"Se te cayó el tabaco," guaracha
"Locas por el mambo," mambo
"Conocí la paz," bolero
"Dolor y perdón," bolero
"Mi amor fugaz," bolero
"No te atrevas," bolero
"De la rumba al cha-cha-chá," guaguanco cha cha cha
"Rumberos de ayer," rumba
"Vertiente Camaguey," son

Basic Discography
1971 - Beny Moré, DICAP
1992 - Beny Moré, de verdad, EGREM
1994 - Beny Moré en vivo, RTV Comercial/Discmedi
2001 - Beny Moré & Pérez Prado (2 CD), Orfeón Records
2004 - Bárbaro del Ritmo (1948-1950), Tumbao Cuban Clasix