Idelfonso Quintana Fabelo

He was born in the Jesús María neighborhood, Havana. He studied primary school in the Atarés neighborhood, both in Old Havana. He continued his studies at the Asociación de Dependientes del Comercio de La Habana where he graduated as a typist and later worked in the office of a furniture store.

The change from his birth name (Idelfonso) to his artistic name (Alfonsín) was due to an idea by Manolo Ortega when he was working as a radio announcer for the García Serra station that broadcast from the Roof Garden of the Plaza hotel.

His relationship with artistic life began in 1938 when the pianist "Neno" González—director of the orchestra of the same name—recommended him to the members of the Jóvenes del Cayo septet to serve as their director since the previous one had stepped down from that position.

At first he was the representative of the septet (in addition to helping with percussion at parties) and later when—with the incorporation of more instruments (piano, trumpets, and tumbadora)—the group became an ensemble, he began to put together a repertoire to have participation as a singer in the new format, until becoming its director.

In 1940 he was hired by the radio station COCO to sing with "Joseíto" Valdés's Ideal orchestra and with "Cheo" Belén Puig's. In the 1950s he received music lessons with maestro Odilio Urfé and around that time he occasionally sang on the radio with the Sensación in the early days of that orchestra. In 1958 he was co-founder along with Benny Moré of the Alí Bar and shared the stage with him in this nightclub.

Alfonsín continued as director and singer of Jóvenes del Cayo until the ensemble disbanded in 1960 (although they continued working together until fulfilling their commitments through the end of 1963). From then on he dedicated himself to singing as a soloist (as he had done on other occasions) and for sentimental reasons did not want to reorganize another group.

In 1964, in an evaluation conducted on him, he received an "A" with 100 points, by unanimous agreement of a jury made up of maestros Armando Romeu, Rafael Somavilla, Adolfo Guzmán, Isolina Carrillo, Roberto Valdés Arnau, and Rafael Ortega.

From 1964 on, independently of continuing to work as a soloist, he decided to form a group called Alfonsín Quintana y su grupo, with which he performed at the Cabaret del Turquino (for 17 years), Tropicana, the Internacional, the Casino Parisién, and other venues. He has recorded with the record labels: Coda, Landia, Seeco, Ansonia, Panart, Puchito, and RCA Victor.

In 1980 he was evaluated again and received a special "A" grade and on this occasion the commission was made up of Isolina Carrillo, Valdés Arnau, and Armando Romeu. He has given countless performances on Cuban radio and television.

Abroad he has also worked before these mass media outlets in Panama, Barranquilla, Tampa (Walt), and Los Angeles (channel 34 and KTNQ). In total he worked in the United States six times, three times (1952 with the J. del C., 1955 to do the Latin Hollywood carnival, 1960 with the J. del C.) before retiring in 1987 and three times after (1990, 1992, 1996) since he has continued working as a soloist when requested.

Forty years of continuous success were sufficient evidence for recordings of the remembered musical group to still be maintained, as is the case with the recent CD released by the Tumbao Cuban Classics label in Barcelona, Spain.

But singer Quintana has not given up, and on the contrary he remains in the trenches of his art, vigorous and strong despite the 66 years of his uninterrupted work. He continues singing bolero after bolero on every stage, from one end of our country to the other.

The well-known artist in his long life has had the opportunity to make recordings with the record labels Coda, Landia, Seeco, Ansonia, Puchito, and RCA Víctor. As well as numerous national and international activities.
For this he has used the entire range of popular music from our country.

Several years ago the young musician Javier Vázquez, musical director of Jóvenes del Cayo at that time, invited me to participate in a recording they had at the Panart label with two of his works. One, a bolero titled "Lástima," sung by Alfonsín Quintana, and the other a guaracha titled "Corta y Clava María," sung by Domingo Vargas. I think this project turned out well, since it has been rerecorded recently in Cuba.

In the late 1950s, we were performing at the Comodoro Hotel with a quartet in nighttime work and suddenly Alfonsín appeared with a small group to alternate with us.

We composers have the habit of not wasting time to present our musical works at any moment and any hour.

So I proposed to the mentioned singer and director a bolero of mine titled "Eres Sensacional."

The conversation at that moment was roughly like this:

"Sing it for me," Alfonsín proposed to me.

So I sang it for him, naturally with my quite hoarse voice which is the only one I have.

Then Alfonsín told me: "I like it and I'm going to sing it for you tonight."

After that I was left astonished, the bolero was not difficult but neither easy, and I told him: "Look maestro, don't do that, wait to polish it and then perform it. I as an experienced musician knew that was a risk because that night they were going to televise the performance of both groups.

We began the performance, we descended the four steps from the platform and they climbed calmly and without any worry, THE WORRIED AND NERVOUS ONE WAS ME, I didn't even want to hear them.

Indeed, the number went off correctly and the bolero singer has performed it in all his subsequent presentations.

I must note that the mentioned singer later recorded the bolero "Eres Sensacional" on RCA Víctor records accompanied by pianist Pepe Delgado and the cooperation of the Cuarteto Faxas. In fact I was very pleased with this recording which sold out immediately, so much so that I could not obtain any copy.

Idelfonso told me some time later that my bolero created in the early 1950s has pursued him like a shadow since he sang it for the first time.

Alfonsín Quintana has received great tributes for his long life as a bolero singer and will continue to receive them because he has quality, temperament, and determination.

Alfonsín pa rato. I just read it in the latest edition of the magazine "Tropicana Internacional." And I think it is the exact phrase as an epilogue to this article.

He was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2011 as a singer for the project Los cien sones de Edesio Alejandro.