José Antonio Méndez García

He began around 1940 studying guitar and composition. As a high school student, he premiered his first piece at a party at the Instituto de La Habana.

He then began performances on the radio station Mil Diez. He organized the musical group Loquibambia. In 1949 he went to Mexico, where he performed successfully in nightclubs, radio, and left his voice and songs recorded on five long-playing records.

In 1959 he returned to Cuba, a representative of the feeling movement. He has traveled throughout almost all of Latin America and Europe.

In 1965 he recorded a long-playing record, accompanied by Frank Emilio.

Author of the well-known songs "La gloria eres tú", "Novia mía", "Quiéreme y verás", "Ayer la vi llorar", "Si me comprendieras", "Sufre más", "Soy tan feliz", "Me faltabas tú", "Decídete", "Tú mi adoración", "Por nuestra cobardía", "Mi mejor canción", "Ese sentimiento que se llama amor".

Guitarist, composer and performer. One of the main representatives of the movement called filin.

He was born in La Habana, in the neighborhood of Los Pinos. In his home, from a young age, he knew Sindo Garay, Manuel Corona and Rosendo Ruiz, great names of traditional Cuban trovador music.

In 1940 he participated as a competitor in the famous radio program La Corte Suprema del Arte –which was aimed at discovering talent– performing a Mexican corrido that was very popular at the time, Cocula, and he was awarded a prize.

In 1946 he wrote his first composition, Por mi ceguedad, and shortly after Novia mía, one of his most celebrated works.

Around those years, people were beginning to talk in musical circles about "los muchachos del filin" (from the English feeling), who would meet privately to "unload" their songs with the guitar. That group included, among others, the composers César Portillo de la Luz, Ñico Rojas, Ángel Díaz, Luis Yáñez, Rosendo Ruíz Quevedo, Pablo Reyes, Justo Santos, Niño Rivera; the singers Elena Burke, Omara Portuondo and Moraima Secada, and the pianist Frank Emilio.

Regarding this movement, Méndez believed that filin meant for its singers and composers, beyond just feeling, a condition of the time in which they lived, of their era. One could have a hoarse voice, but if you managed to send a message to the audience, you had filin. Thus, the term feeling or filin –as it became established when hispanicized– came to denote everything good, modern, spontaneous, that triumphed over routine.

José Antonio Méndez founded in 1946 the group Loquibambia Swing, in which he played the lead guitar. It was made up of Alberto Menéndez (second guitar), Eligio Valera and Leonel Bravet (singers), Oscar "Kiko" González, and later Isauro Hernández, on bass, Frank Emilio (piano) and vocalist Omara Portuondo.

Later he joined another group, in which he played electric guitar, with Rosendo Ruíz (acoustic guitar), Dandy Crawford (singer), Luis Yáñez (vocals and maracas), Francisco Fellove (vocals and tumbadora), Isauro Hernández (bass), Frank Domínguez (piano) and Wichi Mercier (trumpet) or Leonardo Acosta (alto saxophone).

In 1947 he composed La gloria eres tú, which in Mexico was recorded on disc by Toña la Negra and was performed by Pedro Infante in the film Dos tipos de cuidado. In New York, through the mediation of Miguelito Valdés, Olga Guillot recorded this bolero for the Coda label.

In 1948 the guarachero Orlando Guerra, "Cascarita", recorded with the orchestra Orquesta Casino de la Playa the guarachas by Méndez Pa que te dure, Se cansa uno and Ay, qué jelengue, which reflected the difficult economic situation that the average citizen was going through those days.

In 1949, José Antonio Méndez made several recordings as a performer, with the ensemble of Julio Gutiérrez. In 1949 he traveled to Mexico, at the invitation of singer Pepe Reyes, and there he worked with Mario Ruíz Armengol, Agustín Lara (on his program La Hora Azul), Gonzalo Curiel, Luis Demetrio, Álvaro Carrillo, Vicente Garrido, María Luisa Landín, José Sabre Marroquín and others. Dámaso Pérez Prado and Benny Moré recorded his guaracha Pa que te dure.

In La Habana, in 1950, the famous Conjunto Casino, of Roberto Espí, recorded his boleros Soy tan feliz, Cuando lo pienses bien and Quiéreme y verás. The following year, the same ensemble recorded Tú, mi adoración, with the vocal part by Roberto Faz, and Ayer la vi llorar, sung by Espí, which became immediate successes.

Between 1955 and 1956 Méndez made his first recordings in Mexico, on the initiative of Mario Rivera Conde –a senior executive at the RCA Victor Mexicana record label, with a repertoire made up of his own works and those of other composers, and accompanied by the orchestras of Chucho Zarzosa and Mario Ruíz Armengol.

In 1957 his first long-playing record hit the market, José Antonio Méndez canta solo para enamorados, which included, among other pieces, Mi mejor canción, Como los demás, Sufre más, La gloria eres tú and Novia mía; Delirio, by César Portillo de la Luz, and Mil congojas, by Juan Pablo Miranda.

He performed in Guatemala, and in 1957, returning to Mexico, he composed Si me comprendieras, which Chilean Lucho Gatica recorded with the orchestra of Sabre Marroquín. The second volume of José Antonio Méndez canta solo para enamorados appeared, with his compositions Por qué dudas, Eres diferente, Repróchame, Decídete, mi amor and Por nuestra cobardía, which Olga Guillot recorded on disc shortly after. Accompanying himself on guitar, he also performed in Mexico in nightclubs, theaters, radio and television.

After the revolutionary triumph of 1959 he decided to return to Cuba. In 1960 he received a tribute, organized by the Club Cubano de Jazz, in the Copa Room of the Havana Riviera hotel.

In Mexico his third long-playing record then appeared, with already known songs and others new, such as Y no crees en mi amor. He introduced his bolero Me faltabas tú, which Elena Burke and Pacho Alonso would popularize and which Vicentico Valdés would record in New York.

During the first years of the 1960s he performed, night after night, in the Lobby's Bar of the Hotel Saint John's, in El Vedado habanero.

In 1964 he recorded in La Habana an album, with Frank Emilio's combo and a "string orchestra and jazz" conducted by Rafael Somavilla, which contains his songs –such as the guaracha Cemento, ladrillo, arena; the boleros El nuevo amanecer and Tu dulce mirar; new versions of Mi mejor canción and Novia mía–, and works by old companions from the filin days, such as Portillo de la Luz (Dime si eres tú), Pablo Reyes (Gemelos), Armando Guerrero (Tema eterno), Armando Peñalver (Me parece mentira) and Enrique Pessino (Corazón en cristal).

In 1965 he performed with a large cast in the show Carnavaleando, of the Cabaret Tropicana, but he did not abandon the intimate atmosphere of the club to perform his songs.

In 1967 he was elected president of the Sociedad Cubana de Autores Musicales. Before that, he had presided over the Musicabana publishing house, made up essentially of authors linked to filin.

He made new recordings with Frank Emilio in 1977, among which he introduced Otra nueva canción and Este sentimiento que se llama amor, which achieved great popularity in the interpretations of Pacho Alonso and Moraima Secada.

In 1978 he recorded in Mexico with the orchestra of Chucho Zarzosa, for the Polydor label, a new record in which he included, among other compositions, Xochimilco, by Agustín Lara; El amor de mi bohío, by Julio Brito; La puerta, by Luis Demetrio; Una aventura, by Elisa Méndez, and a new version of Ayer la vi llorar, one of his boleros that the Conjunto Casino had introduced decades before.

His last performance in Mexico took place in 1985, with the ensemble Son 14, directed by Adalberto Álvarez.

He made his last long-playing record in La Habana in 1986, for the Egrem label, with orchestral arrangements by Frank Emilio, Rey Montesinos and Abelardo Buch. As in other productions, he alternated his own works with those of other composers. Of his own composition he included Tú, mi amor divino, Quiéreme y verás, Ayer la vi llorar, Será cuando regreses, Te veré en mis brazos and Como los demás. By Ñico Rojas, Ahora sí sé que te quiero and Sé conciente; by Jorge Mazón, India exótica; by Yáñez and Gómez, Fiesta de amor; by Pablo Reyes, Fiesta en mi ser and by Armando Peñalver, Oasis de amor.

On June 10, 1989, after performing at the Pico Blanco of the Hotel Saint John's during a Bolero Festival, he died as a victim of a traffic accident.

Compositions
Novia mía
Por mi ceguedad,
Soy tan feliz
La gloria eres tú
Cemento, ladrillo y arena
Como los demás
Ese sentimiento que se llama amor
Me faltabas tú
Mi mejor canción
Por nuestra cobardía
Sufre más
Tú, mi amor divino
Y decídete, mi amor
Ayer la vi llorar
Quiéreme y verás
Si me comprendieras
Háblame de frente
La última la traigo yo
¿Por qué dudas?
Qué jelengue

As a performer, he had a clear timbre and above all well-tuned pitch, although when he spoke his voice was hoarse, his manner of singing influenced Pablo Milanés. When playing guitar, just like Portillo de la Luz, he plucked it with the thumb of his right hand, and he possessed a rich and beautiful sound, with an orchestral concept in the accompaniment.