Nilo Menéndez Barnet

Nilo Menéndez Barnet was born in Matanzas, the same city as Pérez Prado. He studied with a well-known teacher named María Angulo. When he already mastered the piano, he began to practice in silent films, as was the fashion at that time. He was also in demand in danzón orchestras, in which good pianists were scarce, since back then many musicians were amateurs.

For that reason, Nilo decided to try his luck in the capital, where good musicians were highly appreciated. He moved to an amusement park that existed before Coney Island and in whose grounds artist and orchestra presentations were held: the Havana Park. He also found work at the Olimpia theater, which still exists on Línea Street, in Vedado.

Finally, he decided to create his own danzón orchestra, of which there were many in the city. He made presentations at the Martí theater with the company of Ernesto Lecuona.

In 1924, Nilo decided to reside in New York—the son was beginning to become fashionable in Havana—and there he joined forces with Puerto Rican pianist Enma Boehm-Oller and Catalan musician—developed in Cuba—Xavier Cugat. They performed in a celebrated recital at the Steinway Salon, where they offered a classical concert of enormous scope. The musician from Matanzas was beginning to make a name for himself; performances abounded in clubs, cabarets, hotels, and Broadway theaters.

Nilo formed a trio after the success of Los Matamoros' recordings. It was made up of him, José Martínez Casado, and Adolfo Utrera, the latter being the lyricist of many songs, including the one for Aquellos ojos verdes.

The song Aquellos ojos verdes, by Nilo Menéndez, with lyrics by poet Adolfo Utrera, is for many the first great worldwide success of a Cuban bolero.

The composition dates from 1929, precisely when the danzonete created by Aniceto Díaz appeared in the province of Matanzas. The work constitutes a melodic innovation; it is not the triumph of a song, but of a style that breaks with the traditional bolero. It maintains its Cuban character, but abandons the cinquillo formula in the melodic outline. It has the influence of the harmonies of French impressionism by Claude Debussy, adapted to jazz.

A "touchstone" for great voices from around the world, this important musical piece finds among its principal interpreters Don Aspiazu's Orchestra with singer Chick Pullacek, tenor Juan Arvizu, Nat King Cole; Pilar Arcos, Rita Montaner, Esther Borja, Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, Bobby Breen, Helen O'Connell, Rosita Fornés, Luis Gardel, Los Panchos, tenors Alfredo Graus and José Carreras, the orchestras of the Dorsey Brothers, Ray Conniff, and many others.

Nilo Menéndez is one of the Cuban musicians who from the 1920s onward spread Cuban music in the U.S. within the Latin colony. Cuba and Puerto Rico in those years fought to impose the hegemony of Creole music in that New York.

The Cuban pianist was an orchestra director and musical director of several films in Hollywood, according to documents by musicologist Raúl Martínez. He obtained a position in the Latin music department of the Columbia company, where he found the opportunity to disseminate Cuban music throughout America.

After the success of the songs with Utrera, he places another hit: Se fue la conga. Likewise, he carried out projects in very famous theaters with many singers, such as Rosita Moreno, Tito Guizart, and with the colossus Frank Sinatra, with whom he was possibly the only Cuban musician who worked.

New York was the scene of his greatest successes not only as a performer of "popular" works, but he also cultivated classical music, interpreting works by Amadeus Mozart and Camilo Saint-Saëns. Later, he became part of the famous Xavier Cugat orchestra.

With Rosita Moreno, he performed accompanying her on piano at the Club Habana Madrid, the Stork Club, the Morocco, and other no less important venues. He was also the accompanying pianist for Tito Guizart and Frank Sinatra.

As a solo pianist on January 27, 1974, he performed Piano Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra by Norwegian composer Edward Grieg.

He was an orchestra director for the record companies Pathé, Decca, Columbia, and RCA Víctor, and for the film companies 20th Century Fox, United Artists, and RKO.

Cubans with gray hair will remember the films Los hijos mandan, starring Arturo de Córdoba, and La inmaculada, with Andrea Palma, both scored by Nilo Menéndez.

But his creative work does not stop there. In 1950, or in the mid-1950s, he composed the ballet Tu antifaz, dedicated to prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso.

Nilo Menéndez's works have been performed by the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Don Aspiazu's, and by singers Antonio Machín, Juan Arbizu, Rita Montaner, Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, Rosita Fornés, and other no less celebrated ones. Nilo Menéndez composed several boleros, four congas, and a danzón.

Nilo composed about sixty works including boleros, danzones, congas, marches, bujerías, caprices, afro, and marches. But it is the piece Aquellos ojos verdes that immortalized him forever. Its melody—like every great song—is of astounding charm, which disarms any listener.

Nilo remained in the U.S. for more than six decades. He died on September 15, 1987, in California, and according to information from his researchers, his last wish—like Moisés Simona—was that his remains be buried in Cuba, a wish fulfilled on December 11, 1990. His ashes currently rest in Colón Cemetery.

Works

Ballet
Tu antifaz

Bolero
Alma
Aquellos ojos verdes, lyrics: Adolfo Utrera
Besos bajo la luna
Aunque no pueda vivir sin ti
Di que me quieres, lyrics: Rubén F. de Olivera
Dulce romance
El dolor de amarte
Gitana preciosa
Magia
No fueron tus ojos
No me digas nada
Perdóname
Preso de amor
Quisiera tu amor arrancarme
Tenía que suceder and Viniste del cielo

Conga
Negra Quirina
Negra soy
Rumba en la noche
Se fue la conga
Tra-la-la

Danzón
Julieta y Mennie