Generoso “El Tojo” Jiménez

Even though trombone often gets short shrift behind vocals, flute as well as saxophone in Cuban music, Generoso “El Tojo” Jiménez is noteworthy among the best trombone players in Cuban history. He was created in the tiny city in Cruces, in what’s right now the province of Cienfuegos, on July 17, 1917. Much like any aspiring musician through the provinces, his route ultimately got him 150 kilometers northwest to Havana, where in fact the famous pre-revolutionary nightlife got attracted music artists and music fans from all around the globe. Jiménez thrived within this environment, ultimately winning a sought after place with Beny Moré’s wildly well-known orchestra in 1955. He remained with the music group being a composer and business lead soloist until 1959, but his period there’s still marked with the coros of Moré’s strike “Que Bueno Baila Usted,” where in fact the music group sings out frequently “Generoso! How you play!” After departing Moré’s orchestra, Jiménez documented several albums along with his very own orchestra, including Un Trombón Majadero, signifying “The Unruly Trombone,” that was re-released in america by Bembé Information in 1997. By that point, Jiménez have been retired for many years and was surviving in obscurity and near-poverty like the majority of various other Cubans. The re-release directed not merely to revive some very nice Cuban program playing, but additionally to supply a health supplement to Jiménez’s income, an added bonus which was a richly deserved perk from the rekindled American fascination with older Cuban music. A regularly asked query about Jiménez can be how he found possess the nickname “Un Tojo.” The Cuban attitude towards Asians is definitely sort of affable provinciality bordering on racism, and a person with actually slightly almond-shaped eye, actually if they haven’t any actual Asian bloodstream, is immediately saddled with nicknames like “Chino”; Jiménez was no exclusion. The people of his music group thought he appeared vaguely Asian, therefore the decidedly un-PC nickname of “Tojo.”