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Marcelino Guerra

Affectionately nicknamed “Rapindey,” Marcelino Guerra enjoyed tremendous longevity among the premier segunda voz (second voice, or harmony) singers in Cuban music. Also, his numerous track compositions (chiefly in the bolero and child forms) helped bring about filin, a method which bridged the space between Cuban well-known music as well as the more technical harmonic vocabulary of American jazz since it forced from golf swing and stride into bebop. Guerra was created right into a poor family members in Cienfuegos, Cuba, circa 1914; he was orphaned at age five and elevated by his maternal grandmother, who offered him his lifelong nickname Rapindey. Guerra relocated to Havana in 1931 and 2 yrs later became a member of Ignacio Pineiro’s renowned Septeto Nacional as second vocalist; he also started learning your guitar from Rafael Rebuifero. After performing with other Havana organizations, Guerra became a member of the orchestra from the famous Arsenio Rodriguez in 1938, which group’s regular radio looks brought Guerra’s tone of voice to the complete nation frequently. In 1944, Guerra journeyed to NEW YORK to create some recordings; he finished up emigrating presently there, and could not go back to Cuba once again. He became a member of up with Machito’s seminal Afro-Cuban Orchestra, fundamentally the initial accurate Latin jazz group, as second vocalist; in addition they wound up saving several Guerra compositions, the to begin several NY orchestras to take action. Guerra sang with other groupings before developing his very own, with whom he documented during the later ’40s and ’50s. Guerra briefly ended his lifestyle as a specialist musician in the ’60s, functioning instead being a product owner marine. Thanks partly to manufacturer René Lopez’s insistence, he rejoined the music globe in the middle-’70s and documented with pivotal statistics of the brand new York salsa motion who known the need for his past function — music artists like pianist Eddie Palmieri and vocalist Ruben Cutting blades (who utilized Guerra on his Grupo Folklorico con Experimental Nuevayorquino task). Guerra ultimately retired to Spain, where he resolved in the city of Alicante and wedded Julia Nunez. Through the ’90s, musicologist Tony Evora persuaded Guerra, right now in his eighties, to record once again. Sessions occurred during the summer time of 1995, offering plenty of visitor singers and music artists — including longtime close friends Compay Segundo and Omara Portuondo, quickly to become of Buena Vista Public Club — who had been pleased to perform with him and pay out him tribute. The causing album, Rapindey, premiered in 1996 — but unfortunately, Guerra would expire that exact same season. His position as the daddy from the Latin jazz precursor design filin was rivaled just by Omara Portuondo; since Guerra hardly ever came back to his homeland, he was struggling to talk about in the popular acclaim accorded towards the equivalent music artists in the Buena Vista Public Club, however his position as an innovator included in this remains assured.

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