Miguel Arcángel Conill Conill

Recognized among the best soneros of Cuba, who shared the stage with Benny Moré, Arsenio Rodríguez, Félix Chapotín, Richard Egües, Enrique Jorrín, among others.

He was born in Pinar del Río, son of Pastor and Valeriana, a humble family that instilled in their children good example and respect for their fellow man. He was dark-skinned, of medium height and with a pleasant smile, with a gift for people and a spirit capable of conquering the world. From a very young age he was familiar with the musical life of his province. During the 1920s and 1930s he sang in sextets and other groups typical of Cuban music, especially the orchestras of Niño Rivera, Jacobo González Rubalcaba and Fernando Sánchez.

In 1932 he joined the musical group "Los Carameleros" with which he made his first performances. Because of the tone of his voice and his singing style, he joined the orchestra of Fernando Sánchez in 1934 and that of Jacobo González Rubalcaba in 1936.

The talented musician from Pinar arrived in Havana in 1938, just over 20 years old, invited by Ernesto Muñoz, known to all as maestro Muñoz, whom few remember today, but who in the 1930s was quite popular because he directed his own orchestra.

The aforementioned maestro proposed to Cuní to incorporate him into his group, with which he remained for about two years, becoming known in the capital's artistic world and thus fulfilling his desire to establish himself in the city. Shortly after he joined the orchestra "Arcaño y sus maravillas" directed by flutist Antonio Arcaño, an demanding musician who revolutionized the danzón genre. Maestro Arcaño always praised the popular singer:
"In the early 1940s, at the old radio station Casa Lavín, on Reina 314, which later became Mil Diez, Cuní began working with me... He was a singer who was very popular among dancers, with a strong voice of a great sonero, very intelligent, with exquisite pronunciation and a range of uncommon extension for singers of his genre."

Miguelito also had the great opportunity to play with Arsenio Rodríguez, the marvelous blind man, and pianist and arranger Luis Martínez Griñan (Lili) who remembered Cuní as an intelligent and quick singer to learn things. "I have not come across another singer as intelligent as he was. He had a voice that was well received by the microphone, capable of reaching the high notes that were required... a good sonero"

Cuní and Chapotín
With the Arsenio group he recorded several songs, with "El guayo de Catalina" becoming more popular. In 1947, he traveled as a soloist to the Panama Carnival, where he remained for two years, to return then to Arsenio Rodríguez's orchestra in 1949. However, the most remembered stage of Miguelito Cuní's work began in 1949, when Arsenio Rodríguez decided to travel to New York, with the purpose of recovering his vision and reviving his artistic career, leaving the group in the hands of trumpeter Félix Chapotín.

During the 1950s, Cuní occasionally alternated with Benny Moré's orchestra but always maintaining his place alongside Chapotín and his group, with a deep friendship prevailing between both. For more than 30 years Chapotín and Cuní were inseparable companions and made a large number of successful recordings, standing out among them "El carbonero" and "Quimbombó que resbala".

From 1959 onward, Miguelito Cuní continued his musical work intensely, both in Cuba and abroad. Together with Chapotín he performed on the most important stages in the country, traveling also to the Dutch Antilles, Curaçao and the United States.

After touring the Caribbean, he performed in New York in the 1960s, joining for a short time the group of Arsenio Rodríguez, who had become a genuine standard-bearer of Cuban music in the place. By that time Cuní was already one of the essential voices of son and bolero; he had immortalized the bolero "Convergencia", with which he reached the pinnacle of quality in interpretation and feeling. In 1978 he traveled to the Soviet Union with the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music, alongside musicians of the caliber of Enrique Jorrín, Richard Egües, Tata Güines, Juan Pablo Torres, Rafael Bacallao (Felo), Teresa García Caturla, Carlos Emabale and Félix Chapotín. Of him the songwriter Moraima Secada expressed:
"Although a natural sonero, he sang with equal mastery a bolero of those that shake you, as well as a son or a guaguancó. Very complete as a performer, and very polished, with a squareness and a barbarous sense of rhythm. And if you add to that the sympathy of his personality, it is easy to understand why he was so popular..."

He recorded several records and long-playing discs that were distributed in the international market under the Areíto label, among which were "La Guarapachanga", recorded with the Chapotín Group and "Convergencia", a bolero by Bienvenido Julián Gutiérrez and Marcelino Guerra that he sang as a duet with troubadour Pablo Milanés and which was heard for the first time in the voices of both during the National Son Festival of Guantánamo in 1980.

In 1981 he traveled to Venezuela with a delegation of artists gathered under the name "Estrellas de Areíto", and the director of that group, maestro Enrique Jorrín, referring to Miguelito assured:
"on a personal level, I have known few people as respectful as he; respectful as a friend and as a companion, with attention to the intent of the author of a melody and also in the interpretation".

In his last recording he interprets the bolero, Lágrima, from the long-playing record titled "De nuevo Arcaño". His last trip abroad was to Mexico and dates from 1982.

Besides being a singer, he ventured into the world of musical composition, and among his works are cited:
Congo africano
¡Ay mamita!
Batanga africana
A bailar con la guajira
Sones montunos from the late 1950s, and the boleros:

Lloró Changó
Toque santo
Las ansias mías
A ti, Benny Moré
And the guaracha "Esto no se ve", among other titles.

Death

He died in Havana on March 3, 1984, three months after his cherished friend and companion of countless journeys, Félix Chapotín, who had died on December 21, 1983.

Tribute

Miguelito Cuní was admired by all who knew him, highlighted by all his friends and family as a man of excellent human qualities. In tribute to his career, the Commander of the Revolution, Juan Almeida composed the lyrics "Este son homenaje", which was performed by singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés.

In the artistic realm he deserved the recognition of his colleagues and thousands of admirers, and on a personal level those who knew him remember him as a man of impeccable word and good speech. Miguelito Cuní was a true Cuban gentleman.