Mario Fernández Porta

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Composer, pianist, Cuban performer. Author of Que me importa, Mentiras tuyas and No vuelvo contigo, among other successful pieces.

Mario Fernández Porta was born in Guanabacoa, La Habana. At five years old he was capable of playing melodies on the piano that he heard. He never received formal training on the instrument.

Very young he began singing as an amateur, first at school events, and later, as a guest, in some shows presented in theaters and cinemas. He performed as a dancer on several stages in Havana and as such was part of a Cuban music show that conducted an extensive tour of Mexico in 1938 under the direction of Luis Riera.

Upon his return to Cuba he began to make known his first compositions –lyrics and music–, began to work as an accompanist pianist in various radio stations in the Cuban capital, and as a singer, he performed as a soloist and as a duet with tenor Rodolfo Hoyos, in a daily program on the Lavín station. At the same time –also daily, at different times–, he worked at the La Loma del Mazo station, on Radio Progreso and on COCO El Periódico del Aire. Near midnight he performed as a pianist at the Hotel Sevilla Biltmore.

His first interpreter was María Ciérvide (who for many years formed with Georgina Dubouchet the Dúo Primavera), who premiered La canción de mi amor in a public presentation in the late 1930s. In 1940 the famous Mexican singer Juan Arvizu recorded his piece Fuiste tú.

Other early songs by Mario Fernández Porta are Aunque nunca, En silencio, Espérame and Realidad, popularized by René Cabel, Cuban singer, known as "The tenor of the Antilles", who recorded works by Fernández Porta, in Puerto Rico, with the orchestra of Pepito Torres, in 1941. That same year, a few months later, Aurora Lincheta "The queen of the Pregón" recorded, with the Casino de la Playa Orchestra, his guaracha Tríquitriqui tríquitrá.

In 1943 the Sexteto Casino (shortly after Conjunto Casino) recorded, in the voice of its director Roberto Espí, Perdóname esta vez.

The advertising company for Gravi products hired Mario Fernández Porta to present the program Un mensaje para ti on the RHC Cadena Azul station in which the young composer created new numbers practically on a daily rhythm. The high audience levels that the program achieved in a short time caused the rival station, CMQ Radio, owned by Goar Mestre, to hire him with much higher fees, to broadcast the show on that station in prime time.

From then on Fernández Porta became one of the most sought-after composers by performers and orchestras inside and outside the country, while continuing to work as an accompanist pianist for major singers of the era. He began to be performed by Rita María Rivero, who, according to the composer, was the interpreter who was linked to his music for the longest time.

The famous Cuban singer Esther Borja included several of his songs and boleros in her repertoire from the beginning of that decade: Rezar, Qué me importa and No te alejes. This distinguished mezzo-soprano performed compositions by Fernández Porta in her tours through the United States with the company of American operetta composer Sigmund Romberg and brought about both composers meeting and maintaining professional relations for years. Romberg included Qué me importa in his orchestra's repertoire with the title Nothing Matters.

Mario Fernández Porta was part of, with other composer-pianists –such as René Touzet, Julio Gutiérrez, Orlando de la Rosa, Isolina Carrillo, Juan Bruno Tarraza, Bola de Nieve and Bobby Collazo, among others–, the core nucleus of musical creators that defined a new style of bolero and song in the 1940s and part of the following decade. He participated as a guest alongside some of these artists in several concerts by Ernesto Lecuona in which various pianists performed with the maestro on stage playing simultaneously.

In 1944, with the orchestra of Julio Gutiérrez, Mexican tenor Pedro Vargas recorded his bolero Llegaste; René Cabel, Verguenza, with the Casino de la Playa; and later, Mentiras tuyas. The Mexican Rosa María Alam brought to commercial recording that year Qué me importa, with the orchestra of Miguel Ángel Pazos and shortly after, Puerto Rican Tony Carrión the bolero Yo no vuelvo a querer, which Toña la Negra popularized in Peerless recordings in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

In 1945 the entertainment columnists of Cuba proclaimed Mario Fernández Porta as the composer of the year.

In 1946 the orchestra of Mexican composer Gabriel Ruíz recorded his bolero Yo no me acuerdo, with singer Mario Gil.

In 1947 the recordings Vuelvo a querer, (beguine), by René Cabel with the orchestra of Tito Ribero and No me puedes decir que no, by Tito Álvarez with the Cosmopolita orchestra, were frequently heard.

In Mexico he performed as a crooner backed by the valued orchestra of Gonzalo Curiel. His composition No vuelvo contigo appeared for six months in that country's hit parade, for which the magazine Radiolandia presented him with their Palma de Triunfo de Plata award.

In Mexico he made commercial recordings of boleros and mambos with the Tropical Maravilla orchestra and with his own ensemble. His music was included in the soundtracks of several films.

Upon his return to Cuba he performed as a singer in theaters and cabarets on the island. In 1950 he made several recordings as a singer with the orchestra of Julio Gutiérrez. In those sessions he included two numbers of his own composition (Anoche me quisiste and Mi insistencia) and two by Gutiérrez (Mi desesperación and Un mambo para ti). That year Conjunto Casino recorded Contéstame al fin, in the voice of Roberto Espí, and Mexican actor-singer Tito Guízar with the Casino de la Playa the bolero-mambo Amoroso.

He participated in the first television broadcasts in Cuba, on Channel 4, a station where he maintained a regular program with Rita María Rivero and Carlos D'Mant. In 1951 Enemigos was released, a bolero of his composition by the orchestra of Bobby Collazo with singer Orlando Fierro.

Fernández Porta formed a vocal quartet that performed with the orchestra of Channel 4 directed by Julio Gutiérrez. He participated in several seasons of programs on that channel sponsored by General Electric and in Video Revista La Corona with Rosita Fornés.

In the 1950s, he continued composing and performing in public –singing and accompanying himself on piano– in restaurants and cabarets. At the end of the decade he recorded an album for the Cuban label Velvet with his own compositions, including Vivo sin ti, Qué lástima me da, en tu intimidad and Para Cuba yo traigo un son, written years before for Celia Cruz.

Rolando Laserie unexpectedly revitalized, with the orchestra of Ernesto Duarte, his composition Mentiras tuyas with a bolero-cha arrangement that ranked among the top preferences of the public and record sales between 1957 and 1959.

In 1960 Fernández Porta left Cuba for Puerto Rico, a country where he performed as a pianist and singer. He made numerous presentations in Santo Domingo and Mexico. In San Juan he recorded a long-play album with the orchestra of Humberto Suárez.

Around 1964 he settled in Miami. He performed in clubs, restaurants, hotels and organized concerts with singers, groups and composers from his era. He recorded several piano and rhythm albums (1973-74) in which Carlos Bonachea, bass; Raúl Marrero, congas; Ronnie Rodríguez, drums; and Charlie Rodríguez, saxophone participated.

Other notable compositions by Fernández Porta are: Aunque nunca, Hasta hoy, Mensajera canción, Todavía, Franqueza and Pasión tropical (the latter served to title a musical comedy that he prepared in his last years with a script by Pedro Román).

In one of his last interviews (Éxito, July 17, 1996) he stated: "I have dozens of song lyrics that could well be published as poems. (...) Now I hardly put music to them. Why, who's going to sing them for me?"

Mario Fernández Porta died in Miami on December 13, 1996.

Bibliography