Trova

Pepe Sánchez, born José Sánchez (Santiago de Cuba, 19 March 1856 – 3 January 1918), is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero.[5] He had some experience in bufo, but had no formal training in music. With remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost for ever, though some two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples wrote them down. His first bolero, Tristezas, is still remembered today. He also created advertisement jingles before the radio.[6] He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed him.[7]

The first, and one of the longest-lived, was Sindo Garay, born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia (Santiago de Cuba, 12 April 1867 – Havana, 17 July 1968). He was the most outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been sung and recorded many times. Perla marina, Adiós a La Habana, Mujer bayamesa, El huracán y la palma, Guarina and many others are now part of Cuba's heritage. Garay was also musically illiterate – in fact, he only taught himself the alphabet at 16 – but in his case not only were scores recorded by others, but there are recordings as well.

In the 1890s Garay got involved in the Cuban War of Independence, and decided a stay in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) would be a good idea. It was, and he came back with a wife. Garay settled in Havana in 1906, and in 1926 joined Rita Montaner and others to visit Paris, spending three months there singing his songs. He broadcast on radio, made recordings and survived into modern times. He used to say "Not many men have shaken hands with both José Martí and Fidel Castro!" Carlos Puebla, whose life spanned the old and the new trova, told a good joke about him: "Sindo celebrated his 100th birthday several times – in fact, whenever he was short of money!"[8][9]

The four greats of the trova
from left: Rosendo Ruiz, Manuel Corona
Sindo Garay, Alberto Villalón

José 'Chicho' Ibáñez (Corral Falso,[10] 22 November 1875 – Havana, 18 May 1981)[11] was the first trovador (that we know of) to specialize in the son and also on guaguancós and afrocuban rhythms from the abakuá. He played the tres rather than the Spanish guitar, and developed his own technique for this Cuban guitar. During his extremely long career, Chicho sang and played the son in streets, plazas, cafés, nightclubs and other venues throughout Cuba. In the 1920s, when the sextetos became popular, he was forced to sell his compositions to these larger groups and their composers in order to survive. His compositions include Toma, mamá, que te manda tía, Evaristo, No te metas Caridad, Ojalá (sones); Yo era dichoso, Al fin mujer (bolero-sones); Qué más me pides, La saya de Oyá (guaguancós). He worked throughout Cuba, and latterly a short film was made of him ('See also' below).

The composer Rosendo Ruiz (Santiago de Cuba, 1 March 1885 – Havana, 1 January 1983) was a trovador almost as long-lived as Ibáñez and Garay. He wrote the criolla Mares y Arenas in 1911, the workers' anthem Redención in 1917, the bolero Confesión, the guajira Junto al cañaveral and the pregón-son Se va el dulcerito. He was the author of a well-known guitar manual.

Manuel Corona (Caibarién, 17 June 1880 – Havana 9 January 1950) started his career in a red-light district of Havana. Originally a singer-guitarist, he became a prolific composer after his hand was damaged by a pimp's knife. It was a case of "She was a whore, and she had her man, but I loved her". Alberto Villalón (Santiago de Cuba, 7 June 1882 – Havana 16 07 1955) advanced the trova guitar technique and had a hand in the birth of the son septetos.

Garay, Ruiz, Villalón and Corona were known as the four greats of the trova, but Ibáñez and the following trovadores should be regarded as of equally high stature.

Patricio Ballagas (Camagüey, 17 March 1879 – Havana, 15 February 1920); Eusebio Delfín (Palmira, 1 April 1893 – Havana, 28 April 1965); María Teresa Vera (Guanajay, 6 February 1895 – Havana, 17 December 1965); Lorenzo Hierrezuelo (El Caney, 5 September 1907 – Havana, 16 November 1993); Joseíto Fernández (September 5, 1908 – October 11, 1979); Ñico Saquito (Antonio Fernandez: Santiago de Cuba, 1901 – Havana, 4 August 1982); Carlos Puebla (Manzanillo, 11 September 1917 – Havana, 12 July 1989) and Compay Segundo (Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz: Siboney, 18 November 1907 – Havana, 13 July 2003) were all great trova musicians. And let's not forget the Trío Matamoros, who worked together for most of their lives. Matamoros was one of the greats.[12]

Most trovadors were creolized, drawing from both Spanish and African traditions and styles even-handedly. There were exceptions. Guillermo Portabales (Cienfuegos, 6 April 1911 – San Juan, Puerto Rico 25 October 1970) and Carlos Puebla were mostly in the guajiro (peasant) tradition, whilst El Guayabero – Faustino Oramas – (Holguín, 4 June 1911 – Holguín, 28 March 2007) was black and funky in style and content. He was the last of the old trova, the oldest working musician in Cuba, at 95, when he died. His double entendres were a joy.

Compay Segundo
at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Trova musicians often worked in pairs and trios, some of them exclusively solo (Compay Segundo). As the sextetos / septetos / conjuntos grew in popularity many trovadores joined in the larger groups.

The technique of guitar-playing gradually improved; the early trovadors, being self-taught, had rather limited techniques. Later, some tapped into classical guitar techniques to revive the accompaniment of the trova. Guyún (Vincente Gonzalez Rubiera, Santiago de Cuba, 27 October 1908–Havana, 1987) studied under Severino López, and developed a modern concept of harmony, and a way to apply classical technique to popular Cuban music. He became more adventurous, yet still in Cuban vein, and in 1938 stopped performing to devote himself to teaching the guitar. This bore fruit, and two generations of Cuban guitarists bear witness to his influence.

Perhaps the greatest guitarist amongst modern Cuban trovadors is Eliades Ochoa (b. Songo – La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, 22 June 1946), the leader of Cuarteto Patria. Ochoa learnt both Spanish guitar and the Cuban trés; Cuban composer and classical guitarist Leo Brouwer told him that he did not need to learn more about musical technique as he already knew too much! Ochoa plays now with an eight-stringed guitar (a self-designed hybrid of an acoustic six-string and the Cuban trés). Cuerteto Patría includes his brother Humberto Ochoa on guitar, son Eglis Ochoa on maracas, William Calderón on bass, Aníbal Ávila on claves and trumpet, and Roberto Torres on congas.

The trova movement has given rise to offshoots which have grown in the fertile musical earth of Cuba and other Latin-American countries. The following are elements in the trova's great influence:

1. The huge number of lyric compositions which have been used in all areas of Latin-American popular music.

2. Unforgettable musical compositions which became latin standards.

3. The bolero, the musical form most closely associated with the trova, and its relative the canción.

4. The development of guitar technique in popular music.

5. Themes and initiatives related to politico-social events, such as Afrocubanismo, Filín (feeling), and Nueva trova.

The musicians featured here are a few notables amongst hundreds of excellent musicians living the same kind of life. No complete list exists, though the musicians listed below have been mentioned in at least one source.[19] After the name, one or two of their best compositions are noted:

• Salvador Adams ("Me causa celos")
• Ángel Almenares ("Por qué me engañaste?")
• José (Pepe) Banderas ("Boca roja")
• Emiliano Blez Garbey ("Besada por el mar")
• Julio Brito ("Flor de ausencia")
• Miguel Companioni ("Mujer perjura")
• Juan de Dios Hechavarria ("Mujer indigna", "Tiene Bayamo", "Laura")
• José (Pepe) Figarola Salazar ("Un beso en le alma")
• Graciano Gómez Vargas ("En falso", "Yo sé de esa mujer")
• Rafael Gómez (aka Teofilito) ("Pensamiento")
• Oscar Hernández Falcón ("Ella y yo", "La Rosa roja")
• Ramón Ivonet ("Levanta")
• Eulalio Limonta
• Manuel Luna Salgado ("La cleptómana")
• Nené Manfugás
• Rafael Saroza Valdés ("Guitarra mía")

During a career, a musician may work in many different line-ups. Because of the limited sonority of the guitar, trova musicians preferred small groups, or solo performances. Boleros tend to benefit from two voices, primo and segundo, giving to melodic phrases a richness in contrast with the basic rhythm of the cinquillo.[20]

• 1977 Del hondo del corazón. 20min film, Dir. Constante Diego. Figures of the traditional trova talk and sing.
• 1974 Chicho Ibáñez. 11min film, Dir. Juan Carlos Tabío. Short film on the trovador José 'Chicho' Ibáñez (1875–1981), who talks and sings at the age of 99.