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Merceditas Valdés
Mercedes Valdés Granit (September 24, 1922 – June 13, 1996), better known as Merceditas Valdés, was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz Fernández, Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her debut album was released at the start of the 1960s, when the Cuban government nationalized the record industry. She then went on hiatus before making a comeback in the 1980s with a series of albums entitled ''Aché'', in collaboration with artists such as Frank Emilio Flynn and rumba ensemble Yoruba Andabo. She also appeared in Jane Bunnett's ''Spirits of Havana'' and continued performing until her death in 1996. Life and career Early life Valdés was born in Cayo Hueso, Centro Habana, on September 24 (''Virgin of Mercy, Día de las Mercedes''), 1922. Her father was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba ''The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency. It is the most populous city, the largest by area, and the List of metropolitan areas in the West Indies, second largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region. The population in 2012 was 2,106,146 inhabitants, and its area is for the capital city side and 8,475.57 km2 for the metropolitan zone. Its official population was 1,814,207 inhabitants in 2023. Havana was founded by the Spanish Empire, Spanish in the 16th century. It served as a springboard for the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish conquest of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centro Habana
Centro Habana is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipios'' in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. A chinatown - ''Barrio Chino'' - is also located here. It is a smaller municipality of Havana, and it has the highest population density. Centro Habana is divided into five ''consejos populares'' (wards): Cayo Hueso, Colón, Dragones, Los Sitios and Pueblo Nuevo. It is the part of the city located in the polygon bounded by the Malecon, the Paseo del Prado, Maximo Gómez, Arroyo and Infanta streets. History The infrastructure of the city, built 450 years ago, heavily deteriorated during the 1990s after the collapse of the Cuban-Soviet trade partnership. In 1996, restoration projects were started to improve housing and infrastructure in the Cayo Hueso community. Centro Habana was established as an administrative division in 1963 and later formally made its own ''municipio'' in 1976. Demographics In 2004, the municipality of Centro Habana had a population of 158, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona y Casado (; August 7, 1895 – November 29, 1963) was a Cuban composer and pianist, many of whose works have become standards of the Latin, jazz and classical repertoires. His over 600 compositions include songs and zarzuelas as well as pieces for piano and symphonic orchestra. In the 1930s, he helped establish a popular band, the Lecuona Cuban Boys, which showcased some of his most successful pieces and was later taken over by Armando Oréfiche. In the 1950s, Lecuona recorded several LPs, including solo piano albums for RCA Victor. He moved to the United States after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and died in Spain in 1963. Early years Lecuona was born in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, Kingdom of Spain, to a Cuban mother and a Canarian father. There are inconsistencies surrounding his birthdate, with some sources indicating the year 1895, and others still giving the day as August 6. He started studying piano at the age of five, taught by his sister Ernestina Lecuon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celia Cruz
Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of , earning the nickname "". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the " Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 10 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists. The artist began her career in her home country Cuba, earning recognition as a vocalist of the popular musical group Sonora Matancera, a musical association that lasted 15 years (1950–1965). Cruz mastered a wide variety of Afro-Cuban music styles including , rumba, afro, and bolero, recording numerous singles in these styles for Seeco Records. In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution caused the nationalization of the music industry, Cruz left her native country, becoming one of the symbols and spokespersons of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CMQ (Cuba)
CMQ (640 kHz) was a commercial radio station in Havana, Cuba. It had a large audience in the 1940s and 1950s, attracting listeners with programs that included music, sports, talk and news. It later expanded into a television station and network. The radio station was heard on the clear channel frequency of 640 AM, powered at 50,000 watts, making it audible around the Caribbean and Southern United States at night. The TV station broadcast on Channel 6 in Havana, later expanding to seven stations around the island. History Radio The company was founded on March 12, 1933, by Miguel Gabriel and Ángel Cambó. Ten years later, on August 1, 1943, half of it was acquired by the business group of Goar Mestre. In the beginning, CMQ Radio transmitted only in the capital. But broadcasts later were expanded to the rest of the country using broadcast relay stations. The CMQ 640 radio studios were initially located on Calle Monte, on the corner of Paseo del Prado. On March 12, 1948, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized in letter case, lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry. Its Billboard charts, music charts include the Billboard Hot 100, Hot 100, the Billboard 200, 200, and the Billboard Global 200, Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoruba Culture
Distinctive cultural norms prevail in Yorubaland and among the Yoruba people.Kola Abimbola, Yoruba Culture: ''A Philosophical Account'', Iroko Academic Publishers, 2005. Religion (Ẹ̀sìn) The Yoruba people, Yoruba are said to be religious people, but they are also Pragmaticism, pragmatic and tolerant about their religious differences. Whilst many profess the Yoruba religion, Yoruba school of thought; many more profess other faiths e.g. Christianity (Ẹsìn Ìgbàgbọ́), Islam (Ẹsìn Ìmàle) etc. The Ifá divination system is a religious practice that originated from the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Benin.It is believed to be a divination Oracle made up of large sets of sacred verses and stories called Odus. Priests known as Babalawos interpret the messages using the sacred divination oracle that creates a specific pattern when thrown. Law Yoruba law is the legal system of Yorubaland. It is quite intricate, each group and subgroup having a system that varies, but in genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrocubanismo
Afrocubanismo was an artistic and social movement in black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, as in works by the cultural anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The Afrocubanismo movement focused on establishing the legitimacy of black identity in Cuban society, culture, and art. The movement developed in the interwar period when white intellectuals in Cuba acknowledged openly the significance of African culture in Cuba.Carpentier, Alejo 2001 946 ''Music in Cuba'', edited and with an introduction by Timothy Brennan, translated by Alan West-Durán. Cultural Studies of the Americas 5 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). (hardcover); (pbk.) First published as ''La música en cuba'' (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1946). Second edition under the same title, Colección popular 109 (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984). (pbk.). Third edition, Giraldilla series (Havana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1988). A standard work on the history of Cuban music up to 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margarita Lecuona
Margarita Lecuona (1910–1981) was a Cuban singer and composer who is remembered for composing afro songs such as " Babalú" and "Tabú". Biography Born in Havana on 18 April 1910, Lecuona was the daughter of Eugenio Lecuona, the Cuban consul in New York. She attended the Colegio Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes and the Colegio Sepúlveda in Havana before embarking on her secondary education at the Instituto de La Habana which she left after her first two years. She studied singing under Julia Lucignani and the piano under Eulalia Santana before attending the Escuela de Guitarra de Pro-Arte Musical to study the guitar under Clara Romero de Nicola. She studied dance at the Escuela de Ballet under the ballet master Nikolai Yavorsky, performing in a number of his works. In 1930, while still studying, she wrote "Soñadora" which she sang playing the guitar. After performing in a number of stage productions, in 1942, she first created a duo with Olga Luque and then a group called the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babalú
"Babalú" is an international popular Afro Cuban song written by Margarita Lecuona, the cousin of composers Ernestina and Ernesto Lecuona. The song title is a reference to the Santería deity (Yoruba: òrìṣà) Babalú Ayé (Yoruba: Obalúayé). Lyrics In the song's lyrics, originally written in Spanish creole, the singer wonders aloud what to do with a statue of Babalú Ayé, now that a Santería rite had been invoked by others. He suggests that seventeen candles be lit up, in the shape of a cross, and that a cigar and aguardiente be brought to him, as to pay homage to the deity. He then requests good luck, love from his beloved woman, and safety and protection to both. History The song was first published in the United States in 1939 by Peer International. The first publication with an English translation (by Sydney King Russell) was in 1941. "Babalú" was the signature song of the fictional television character Ricky Ricardo, played by Desi Arnaz in the television comedy ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignacio Piñeiro
Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez (May 21, 1888 – March 12, 1969) was a Cuban musician, bandleader and composer whose career started in rumba and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total he wrote about 327 numbers, mostly sones. Piñeiro was a brilliant rumbero who worked with musical groups from 1903 onwards. In 1906, was a member of the Timbre de Oro '' coro de clave y guaguancó'' (a vocal group precursor of contemporary guaguancó), and later directed Los Roncos, another famous ''coro de guaguancó''. He was taught the double bass by María Teresa Vera, and in 1926 he was a member of her band, Sexteto Occidente, which recorded in New York City. In 1927 he founded the Sexteto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro, later simply known as Sexteto Nacional, in which he was the director and songwriter. With the addition of a trumpet the band became the Septeto Nacional. For financial reasons, Piñeiro quit the group in 1935; it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
