Rosendo Ruiz Suárez

Composer and guitarist. Considered one of the greats of traditional Cuban trova music.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba, Oriente. He was one of the disciples of guitarist, composer and baritone José Sánchez (1856-1918), called "the father of the bolero", since he composed, among many other pieces, Tristezas, the first bolero whose score was printed in 1885. Ruiz, like his teacher, made his living as a tailor, although he also had to perform other trades.

By the end of the 19th century he was already participating in canturías and offering serenatas with other disciples of Pepe Sánchez, such as Sindo Garay, José Pepe Figarola, Alberto Villalón, Luis Felipe Portes, Roberto Moya, Salvador Adams, Juan Che Ladrón de Guevara, Emiliano Blez, and Miguel Matamoros. He composed his first song in 1902, titled Venganza de amor, premiered at the Teatro Martí in La Habana by the then famous "singer" José "El galleguito" Parapar in 1911.

His first major success as a composer came that year with the premiere of his song Entre mares y arenas (1910), with lyrics by Francisco Vélez Alvarado, which immediately became part of the repertoire of most duos, trios and quartets of trova that performed in Cuban capital cinemas between silent film showings.

María Teresa Vera was the first to record his songs, in 1914, with the second voice of Rafael Zequeira: Tere y Gela. The following year the duo recorded Rosina y Virginia (known as Dos lindas rosas), one of his most widely distributed works. Between that year and 1915 the duo recorded Confesión, Encanto de Estela, Patria y honor, Violeta, Mi Cuba bella, and Llanto del corazón. In 1919, Cuba aliada. In 1915 Rosendo Ruíz moved to the city of Cienfuegos, where he lived for some years.

Among his first works on record was the guaracha Liborio, which alludes to the disenchantment of the Cuban people (represented by the character of the peasant Liborio) in the first decade of the republic. This guaracha, the song Vanidosa, the bambuco Cuba y sus misterios, and the extraordinary song-caprice Falso juramento, were recorded by José Castillo, lead voice, with the guitar and second voice of Manuel Luna in 1918.

Falso juramento, created to be sung as a duet, has the peculiarity of having two different lyrics that simultaneously combine two melodic lines and two different texts, which is not only surprising for a composer who lacked musical technique, as Radamés Giro correctly points out in his Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Música Cubana (2007), but which reveals that the then young author possessed an authentic command of harmony. Confesión is also a two-voice song.

The duo formed by María Teresa Vera and Zequeira –accompanied on many occasions by the guitar of Manuel Corona– also sang, during those years, by Rosendo Ruíz, the bambuco Mi chiquita and the boleros Dichoso y feliz and Naturaleza (recorded toward the end of the 1910s, among other numbers of his authorship).

In 1917 Rosendo composed the anthem Redención, alluding to Workers' Day, premiered on May 1, 1919 by a choir of twelve voices and orchestra at the Payret theater. This is probably the first workers' anthem written in Latin America.

In 1918 his son Rosendo Ruíz Quevedo was born, composer of songs and boleros such as Hasta mañana vida mía, No, ya no te puedo amar, Bibelot de chocolate, and of very popular chachachás such as Rico vacilón, Los marcianos and Los fantasmas.

In 1920 Rosendo Ruíz settled in the popular neighborhood of Jesús María in La Habana, a gathering place for troubadours, son singers and rumba musicians. He made his living as a tailor, while composing, playing guitar, and joining duos, trios and quartets. In 1922 he wrote a son: Lo que dice Aniceto, and later, La chiquita de Bayamo and Tápame que tengo frío, which was recorded in New York by the Sexteto Occidente de María Teresa Vera. This number, over the years, becomes a danzón, with the title of La chaúcha, recorded by various charanga orchestras, such as that of Antonio María Romeu, that of Rodrigo Prats and Aragón.

In 1926 he founded the Cuarteto Cuba, with Vitaliano Matas (accompanying guitar), Eusebio Corzo (second voice) and Rafael Ruíz (lead voice). Three years later he formed the Trío Habana (with Emilio Betancourt, lead voice, and Enrique Hernández, second voice and accompanying guitar), with which he made recordings of nine of his numbers, including the sons Para enredarme contigo and Mírame y no me comas.

He died in La Habana on January 1, 1983.

Outstanding Works

On February 4, 1928, the famous Sexteto Habanero took their son Tin cun tán to disc, and in December of that same year De mi Cubita es el mango, which gained widespread distribution. In 1929 he received a Diploma of Honor for his musical creations at the International Exposition of Seville.

The difficult political and economic situation of the country in the early 1930s led Rosendo Ruíz to write a guajira that, like many of his numbers, reflected his deep concern for his country's destiny: Junto a un cañaveral, which was recorded, among other groups, by the Cuarteto Antonio-Machin in New York in 1932.

El cantío de mi gallo, Nostalgia guajira, Un paraíso es mi Cuba and A Santa Clara me voy are compositions from that period. His pregón Se va el dulcerito, published in France (Le marchand de candi) and recorded by the orchestra of Julio Cueva in Paris and by Machín in the United States), is included in the soundtrack of the film El alegre solterón, with Adolphe Menjou.

In the early 1930s Guillermo Rodríguez Fiffe and Enrique Valls, both from Santiago, formed a duo and came to La Habana singing from town to town. Already in the capital, they joined Rosendo Ruíz to form the Trío Azul in 1936, which achieved notable success through radio and personal performances. In June of the following year they recorded, by Ruíz, Solavaya and La comparsa Malacó.

The first record by Paulina Álvarez, "La Emperatriz del danzonete", contains her rumba Pimienta y sal (composed in collaboration with Adolfo Rodríguez). In 1942 Guillermo Portabales with the Trío Habana premiered on disc his guajira Flor de amor, which many years later, in 2004, would give title to one of the record productions of Omara Portuondo, with international success.

For years Rosendo Ruíz taught guitar lessons to many troubadours. In 1939 he wrote his work Estudios prácticos en la guitarra; sistema de acompañamiento, which has been published in several editions and has been a very useful tool for Cuban performers of the instrument across several generations.

From the 1940s are the boleros Te quiero así, Amorcito criollo, Dame un beso, Los días de mi vida, Que te ayude Dios, No vivo sin ti and Te desprecio, mujer; the guaracha Borrón y cuenta nueva; the rumba Ahora bailan los tres, the tropical son En Cubita se goza; the waltz Son tus lindos ojos and the sons Contigo no bailo más and Te veré.

In the 1950s the songs and boleros of Rosendo Ruíz were sung and recorded, above all, by the main interpreters of the repertoire of troubadour songs: María Teresa Vera, with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, who continued singing his two-voice songs; the duo formed by Jesús Cabrisas and Irene Farach, and Barbarito Diez with the orchestra of Antonio María Romeu, in arrangements of songs, boleros and pregones in danzonero style.

In 1955 the Cabrisas-Farach duo recorded for the Cuban label Panart a long-playing album with works by Rosendo, accompanied by their guitars and by a string orchestra conducted by Adolfo Guzmán. On this record –which came to market in 1960– the author himself participated as a guitarist.

El Conjunto Casino and Abelardo Barroso with the Orquesta Sensación included in their repertoires the popular guajira Junto a un cañaveral.

Las Hermanas Martí, in the following decade, dedicated two long-playing records to his best-known works, productions that had Rosendo's advice and appeared under the Egrem label.

In 1967 he was elected president of the Forum de la Trova, held at the Biblioteca Nacional Cubana. He continued guiding singers and guitarists interested in learning the secrets of traditional Cuban song for many years, during which he saw all his trovador companions pass away.