Electo Rosell Horrutiner

His first music teacher was his father, guitarist José Rosell. At an early age, the young man was drawn to the violin, assuming it was his preferred instrument, with maestro Ramón Figueroa as his teacher.

When he was 18 years old, he began to provide entertainment during silent film screenings at the newly inaugurated "Cuba" theater.

In 1926 he enlisted in the theater company of Arquímedes Pous, which was musically directed by Jaime Prats, and undertook a tour through Venezuela, Panama, and Colombia. Upon his return to his native Santiago, he began working in cinemas again until the arrival of sound films.

Electo Rosell, together with his friend and pianist Bernardo Chauvin Villalón (Santiago de Cuba 25/2/1910) who later changed his name to the artistic name "Choven", formed a quartet, which they later expanded to seven members, naming it "Oriente Jazz" with which they achieved some popularity in their native region.

Around that time they appeared on a program of Santiago radio where a popular announcer named Matías Vega Aguilera baptized them with the name of the Orchestra "Chepín Choven". Thus the group was composed of: violin, piano, double bass, trumpet, two alto saxophones, and Cuban percussion to adopt the name of "Chepín Choven and His Boy", which together with "Mariano Mercerón and the Peerper Boys", could be among the first of this "Jazz Band" style in the eastern region. It is interesting to note that at this time Choven was combining his work as a pianist with a young man who stood out as a great musician on this instrument named Pedro Justi and nicknamed "Peruchín".

At the end of the 1930s decade, the leadership of the group decided to change the name and repertoire, and that is when they became known as "Orquesta Chepín Choven", which from the beginning of 1940 began to obtain great popularity which extended to almost the entire country as a result of their recordings on the RCA Víctor record label with singers Isidro Correa and Roberto Nápoles. Their records had considerable national resonance which kept the orchestra with very advantageous activity especially in their native region.

During the six years following, their popularity declined and the inevitable changes came that arise after successes, although the orchestra continued with its good popularity in the land that saw them rise.

The cigar factory "Edén" which at that time maintained a daily program with the orchestra on the radio station "Cadena Oriental de Radio", the most important radio station in Santiago de Cuba and throughout the eastern region, where the renowned orchestra remained for approximately 15 years.

The "Chepín Choven" orchestra made a tour throughout the country and recorded two works by Electo Rosell titled "El platanal de Bartolo" with the performer who years later became universally famous Ibrahím Ferrer and the danzón "Bodas de Oro" performed by almost all Cuban orchestras.

Electo Rosell Horrutiner proved to be an integral musician for our national culture. All the work of his life he carried out with optimal quality, all the musical lines that he chose he performed in such a convincing way that his music, his compositions, and his methods for directing groups were the admiration of our Cuban people who were very knowledgeable about all these details.

It can be mentioned that at the insistence of his friends at the end of the 1950s he regrouped several Santiago musicians and formed the group "Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental" with whom he spent the last years of his successful life.