Pascasio Alonso Fajardo

Excellent vocalist with extraordinary pitch, phrasing and perfect meter when singing. Creator of his own style, equally skilled at singing boleros and danceable rhythms, especially son. He was also an outstanding orchestra director and director of different musical groups. He performed a kind of folk musical vignettes that told stories of moments and characters from his hometown. He came to establish a style "in the Pacho manner."

From a very young age he began performing with a children's theater company that performed at the old Teatro Coliseo in his hometown. His professional artistic debut took place in 1945 on a program of the CMCK radio station in Santiago de Cuba, substituting for a brother.

This was followed by presentations on the Cadena Oriental de radio CMKW. Before becoming an artist, he taught and it was in the primary school classrooms where he understood that his true vocation was on the stage and the staff.

At age 18 he met José Antonio Méndez, who introduced him to the well-known Mil Diez radio station in La Habana.

Upon returning to Santiago he completed his teaching studies, without abandoning his performances on Cadena Oriental de Radio. He entered the dream world in 1951 when he was hired as a vocalist with Mariano Mercerón's orchestra, the occasion on which he recorded his first records. Fernando Álvarez and Benny Moré were also singers in this orchestra at that time. Pacho was the songwriter; Fernando, the bolero singer and Benny, the star; popularly known as Los tres Mosqueteros.

The first group created by the musician was called Pacho Alonso y sus Modernistas in 1952, based in Santiago de Cuba. This group was restructured four years later and already in La Habana changed its name to Pacho Alonso y sus Bocucos and later created another group: Pacho Alonso y sus Pachucos.

In the mid-1950s he recorded his first record: Cha-Cha-Cha de la Reina, a successful creation by Enrique Bonne accompanied by Mercerón's orchestra. In 1957 he settled in the capital of the Island, and performed at danceable events in nightclubs and recreational societies; at the same time he performed on radio and television. He also sang in the capital carnivals.

At the end of 1958, he reached the height of popularity with Enfermo del Alma and Dame un chance by Electo Rosell Chepín. Among Pacho Alonso's most important hits throughout his entire career are Yo no quiero piedra en mi camino, by Enrique Bonne, and the boleros Imágenes, Tú no sospechas and Nieblas del riachuelo, songs recorded by RCA Víctor records, which in 1960 awarded him a Gold Record for La Pachanga, which was very popular at the time in Cuba and other Latin American countries, mainly Colombia.

Una noche en el Scheherezada was his first long-playing record, in which he shows himself as one of the greatest cultivators of bolero and was soon followed by Que me digan feo.

The group Pacho Alonso y sus Bocucos worked closely with Faustino Oramas, el Guayabero, Ibrahim Ferrer and Carlos Querol. With Enrique Bonne, he incorporated a new rhythm: Pilón, a modality with antecedents in the eastern organ, and takes its name from the instrument where coffee is husked. In 1967 he formed a new group called Pacho Alonso y sus Pachucos, demonstrating his great versatility and outstanding creativity. The Bonne-Alonso duo made new modalities enjoy popularity, such as the Simalé rhythm and the UPA UPA, although never with the extraordinary success of Pilón.

Pacho Alonso reaped applause traveling through several countries in America, Europe and Africa. At the end of the seventies he incorporated his son Pachito, already an outstanding pianist and arranger, to whom he handed over the direction of the orchestra before his sudden death.