Rafael Cueto

Rafael Cueto, the last living member of the popular Cuban trio Matamoros, died in La Habana, at the age of 91. Cueto, Ciro Rodríguez and Miguel Matamoros made up the renowned trio created in 1925, which performed in New York, Latin America and Europe. The Cuban guitarist and singer was part of several groups in his native city, the eastern Santiago de Cuba, until his incorporation into the Trío Matamoros, distinguished for its compositions and interpretation of son, one of the most popular musical genres on the island.

Rafael Cueto learned to play guitar chords in a self-taught manner and, according to Cuban musicologist Hello Onovio, was the creator of a rhythmic model based on a melodic-harmonic movement called tumbao, performed with bass notes to which he added percussion.

He studied music theory, music composition and piano at the Escuela de Superación Profesional Ignacio Cervantes, 1959-1965.

He traveled to La Habana for the first time in 1924 with the Trío Oriental, made up of Miguel Bisbé, Alfonso del Río (Cueto replaced him on this trip) and Miguel Matamoros, to perform in the Campoamor and Actualidades theaters. In 1925 he joined, as a founding member, the Trío Matamoros, with Miguel Matamoros and Siro Rodríguez.

Artistic Career
With the Trio he moved in 1928 to New Jersey to make several recordings;
In 1929 they went to Mexico and toured the entire state of Mérida;
In 1930 they performed in Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico;
In 1932, in Spain, they performed in Santander, Oviedo, Gijón, Pavia, Avilés, Mier, La Coruña, Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, Orense, El Ferrol, Barcelona, Galicia and Madrid; in the Spanish capital they performed at the Lido, and there they met Eliseo Grenet.

In Paris they performed at the Ambassador and the Empire, and in 1933 they were in Lisboa.

Shortly after their return to La Habana, but that same year, they left for Venezuela, then Aruba and Curaçao and, in 1934, Colombia, Panamá, and New York again to continue their recordings.

The years 1935 and 1936 they spent in La Habana;
In 1937 they returned to New York, Brasil, Buenos Aires, Chile, Lima.
In 1939 they returned to Cuba, and until 1943 they worked at the Hotel Nacional.
In 1945 they traveled to Mexico with Benny Moré;
In 1947 they traveled again to Santo Domingo;
In 1948 to Venezuela, and again to New York.
From 1950 to 1955 they remained in Cuba, but that last year they traveled to Puerto Rico.

In 1956 to Santo Domingo and New York and again to Panamá and Venezuela, where they performed at El Patio Andaluz and the Coney Island.

In 1959 they are in Cuba, but that same year they traveled to New York, where they returned in 1960; back in Cuba, they retired, on May 10 of that last year.

Contributions to Music
According to Vicente González-Rubiera (Guyún), he created a rhythmic model (tumbao), based on singing bass notes to which he added percussion. That tumbao, besides being harmonic, stood out for its eminent Cuban rhythmic flavor, which enhanced the delicious scratching that Miguel made on the guitar. By not doing Miguel's scratching, Cueto avoided cacophony, both rhythmic and harmonic; he employed a completely different rhythm, plus the bass notes he performed, in whose tumbaos he introduced a polyrhythm never heard before.

Works
The Carnivals of Oriente, 1928;
Fifteen, 1930
Pick and Shovel, 1939;
I Take It With Me, 1944,
(sones); Quarrelsome, 1930,
(bolero-son); It Will Be So, 1946,
(text): Rosario Sansores; Something of You Remained, 1959,
(text): Edelmira González; A Vague Nostalgia, 1963,
(text): Edelmira González; Rosa and Stella, 1964;
Sonnet of Love, 1980,
(text): Ángel Augier, Our Hours, 1981,
(boleros); Listen to Me, 1940,
(conga); The Seller of Everything, 1980, street cry.

The tumbao was one of the elements that Cueto contributed to the style of the Trío Matamoros, cultivator of a broad repertoire of sones and boleros such as the well-known Son de la loma, Olvido, Lágrimas negras, Triste, muy triste and El que siembra su maíz.