Federico Arístides Soto Alejo

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He was born in Güines, La Habana. Tumbadora player and general popular percussionist.

Of very humble origins, he began working as a shoe shiner, and came to live in the poorest and most unsanitary neighborhoods of western Cuba.

With absolutely self-taught musical training, he knew and admired as a child our great Luciano Chano Pozo, who undeniably became his model, as a man and musical interpreter, and the most recurring theme in his interviews, when he explained how, and from whom he learned Cuban percussion.

Called a "madman" when young, for using his elongated fingernails in the playing of the tumbadoras, in a short time, his technique began to be imitated by the best and most illustrious percussionists of Cuba and the world on that instrument. Curiously, this was the last specialty he took up as a musician, for before dedicating himself to the tumbadoras, Tata Güines traveled an extensive musical path, playing the claves, bongos, güiro, pailas, and bass, and even fulfilled roles as a solo singer in various popular Cuban genres.

During his prolific life, he first worked in the hometown municipality that gave him his stage name, and later in areas of the city of La Habana, as a member of numerous musical groups in cabarets, radio, TV and carnivals.

Among these institutions are: Conjunto Ases del Ritmo, Orquesta Estrellas Nacientes, jazz-band Swing Casino, Conjunto de Arsenio Rodríguez, as well as with the Orchestras La Nueva América, La Havana Sport and Sensación, also with the Conjunto de Rafael Ortega, Jóvenes del Cayo, Gloria Matancera, Conjunto Camacho, Trío Taicuba, Grupo campesino de Guillermo Portabales, Comparsa Los Dandy (from the Havana neighborhood of Belén), and with Cachao and his Ritmo Caliente.

With the Charanga de Fajardo y sus Estrellas he travels to the carnivals of Caracas in 1955, where he is honored by Venezuelan percussionists, who knew of his art, reflected in records recorded before.

With this group he later travels to New York, where he decides to join Machito y sus Afrocubans Boys, who performed on Broadway. From then on, he is invited to give a solo recital with five tumbadoras –something only previously done by Chano–, and begins to play alongside the best figures in world music, including: Josephine Baker, Maynard Ferguson, Frank Sinatra, and the group Los Chavales de España.

He later gives presentations in the states of California and Texas, as well as in the cities of Chicago and Miami. Due to his excellent results, United States critics called him "Golden Hands". In 1960, he interrupts his chain of successes in North America to return to Cuba, following the Triumph of his Revolution.

His work upon arriving in Cuba was diverse, including: being a member of the Quinteto Instrumental de Música Moderna (later Los Amigos) directed by Frank Emilio; the founding of the children's group Los Tatagüinitos; performing with the National Symphony Orchestra his work "Perico no llores más"; and even, accompanying guitarist Sergio Vitier, in his work "Ad Libitum", which was danced by Alicia Alonso and Antonio Gades. Among his best-known musical compositions are: "Mami dame el mantecado" and "No metas la mano en la candela".

In 1991, along with other Cuban percussionists, he laid the groundwork for the foundation a year later of the Society of Percussionists of Cuba –PERCUBA–, which in 1993 elected him Member of the Hall of Fame of Percussion in Cuba, when they dedicated the National Festival of that association to him, together with the figure of the late Chano Pozo. Tata Güines was an active participant in the life and work of PERCUBA society, until the disappearance of this association in 2006.

During his final years, the Maestro deployed an intense international artistic career that combined the realization of master workshops on Cuban percussion, with his artistic presentations on each tour, also actively integrating himself into the work of the Chair of Popular Music at the Higher Institute of Art.

In 2002 he obtained the Grand Prize CUBADISCO, with the CD "Havana to Rio", with Ernán López Nussa. In 2001, he had obtained the "Grammy Award", for the CD "La rumba soy yo", and again received nominations in 2002 and 2003. He was awarded the following Cuban cultural distinctions: "Honorary Member of UNEAC", "La Giraldilla", "Por la Cultura Cubana", "La Gitana Tropical" and "Alejo Carpentier", among others.

Fabulous reviews of Tata Güines appear in newspapers and magazines from several continents. A versatile musician, who performed and accompanied others in the most diverse musical genres; who organized musical groups; who left us his music and voice recordings, in all the media and technological tools at his disposal; and who taught transcendent classes and lectures; but above all, Tata Güines was a Cuban who maintained until his last breath, his willingness to help anyone who needed it in Cuba and abroad, something invaluable.