In Santiago, a king was born...
For a long time I had been thinking about making Reynaldo Hierrezuelo an interview. And all of a sudden, I’m talking with him: with Rey Caney.
I’m the last of eleven
brothers and I was born on December 30, 1926, in Santiago de Cuba.
People say that you and your
brothers used to make big musical sessions:
Yes, we did that in Siboney –a
place in El Caney where our house was. That’s where they started to call me Rey (king)
Caney: Rey for Rey-naldo and Caney for the place.
When were Los Compadres
formed?
In 1949, and I tell you, it
was by chance. My brother Lorenzo
was working with María Teresa Vera
in a party. She got sick, and then Lorenzo
said he would bring along another person to finish the job, and he came back with
Francisco Repilado.
When did you form part of Los
Compadres?
I came to Havana in 1952 with
the Baraguá Quartet. It was formed by my brothers Caridad and Ricardo;
also by Rigoberto Echevarría, better
known as Maduro. Besides playing the
cuatro, he made musical instruments (strings) and he would play a major role in
a certain point of this story.
We were able to make some
performances but that didn’t last too long. I remained as accompanist of Los
Compadres Duet because on radio they were accompanied by bongo, contrabass and
guiro (gourd).
I began working steady with them at the end of 1953, playing
that famous instrument called pianolo or harmonica, but that I’ve always called
“harmonious”.
Who created the famous
armonioso?
I don’t want to start a controversy,
because in Santiago de Cuba there was a man called Juan Medina, nicknamed “The
mailman”, who also played a similar instrument. I played the guitar and Repilado played a lute -tuned like an
armonioso- with the Hatuey Quartet and at the beginning with Los Compadres;
when I came in as accompanist, Francisco
came up with the idea that Maduro
could make him a ten-string instrument with that shape, that isn’t a guitar or
a lute.
That’s how the harmonic or
armonioso was born: Maduro gave it
that shape. When they separated, Lorenzo
asked me if I would dare to play it, and for almost 40 years I played the
armonioso. Maduro made me two of
those instruments, but with a thicker box to make it sound more. Those are
things that the people don’t know.
How did you get to the ALI BAR and in touch with Benny
Moré?
I must say that Francisco Repilado took me there, and Ojeda offered me to sing as soloist in
a band Manolito Menéndez had for
playing between shows at the nightclub. Then Alipio García asked me to sing with the ALI BAR´s orchestra. So, I
just started to sing whatever, because I was a “singer”. In those times, you
had to be able to sing anything.
One day I showed up with one
of those scores that the music publishers used to give out. It was “Dolor y
perdón”, something that Benny had
recently recorded. They used to turn off the lights when the band played
between shows, and when I sang “Dolor y perdón” they had to turn on the lights
so that the public could see who was singing, and they made me sing it again to
see if it was real.
I take pride in having
performed together with Benny.
Sometimes we even sang as duet. And one day he didn’t come to the show; it was
Saturday and the place was really packed. So you can imagine, the public was
really upset, so Alipio asked me to
substitute him. The animator was barely able to get the public to accept to
listen to a scholar of Benny. I sang twelve themes… and they carried me in
arms to the dressing room. I was the first Cuban singer to interpret Benny´s songs and right there at his
ALI BAR.
Tell me something about the
Old Trova of Santiago.
After I retired, a reporter
came to Cuba once wanting to do an article on old Cuban music.
Music is never old or we would
have to say that Beethoven´s “Fifth Symphony” is old. The interpreters
are the ones that get old.
Like I was saying, this man
shows up and they send him to Santiago de Cuba; Enrique Bonne takes charge of him there and the quintet was formed;
they made a deal with the “Nube Negra” recording company to make a record, but
we made three under the name of Old Trova of Santiago. It was a complete hit.
What is Rey Caney doing at the time?
I’m with the Old Trova; but in 1999 I made a disc by myself: Virgin Record recorded me in 14 themes -11 penned by me. It’s like a will of the numbers I had dedicated to my wife and children. The CD is titled “Enamorado de la vida” (In love with life).
Just one more thing: tell me,
what does Rey Caney believe in?
-I believe in all that of which you can doubt. That´s why I believe
you´ll publish all this.
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Published in Lovelycuba.com – http://www.lovelycuba.com