Cubadisco pays tribute to Benny Moré on his centennial

May 21, 2019

The 23rd International Cubadisco Music Fair pays tribute today to a paradigmatic figure of vocal performance on this continent, Benny Moré (1919-1963), on the centenary of his birth.

To celebrate the so-called Barbarian of rhythm, the epithet by which he was known, multiple Cuban artists will share a gala tonight at the Karl Marx Theater, in the Cuban capital.

According to the show's director, Manolo Ortega, stated at a press conference, La Banda Gigante will accompany almost all the musicians during a concert that proposes contemporary sounds without losing the essence of Benny, as they also affectionately called him, inside and outside Cuba.

Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez stood out from a young age for an innate musical sense, with a fluid tenor voice that knew how to phrase with great expressiveness.

As part of the famous Trío Matamoros, he came to Mexico, where he performed in some of the most famous cabarets of the era, participated in films, and became a star known there and in several Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, among others.

Moré is also known as El Sonero Mayor and, in 2006, Cuba produced the film El Benny, a fiction about the artist's life, portrayed on that occasion by actor Renny Arozarena, who will perform a monologue at tonight's gala.

Among the singers announced in the program are Idania Valdés, Waldo Mendoza, Calunga, Yumurí, Alain Pérez, Mayito Rivera, Luna Manzanares, Telmary, Kelvis Ochoa, Laritza Bacallao, Brenda Navarrete, Cimafunk, and participants of Sonando en Cuba 2.

The 23rd International Cubadisco Music Fair features several concerts, colloquiums, and record presentations, from May 22 to 26, in Havana, and is considered the most important event for discography in the country.