Santiago de Cuba and the surrounding area in Oriente (the eastern part of Cuba) has been the cradle of Cuban song for more than a century. Two of Cuba’s most famous groups originate from there, namely Miguel Matamoros’ “Trío Matamoros,” and Ñico Saquito’s “Los Guaracheros De Oriente.” Although not as well known, Maximilano “Bimbi” Sánchez (Caobitas, Cuba, 1908 – Florida, US, 1991) is surely another worthy son of Oriente who deserves our praise, if not for his excellent and long-lived group, Bimbi y su Trío Oriental, then at least for his famous tune “La Frutabomba.”

Maximilano “Bimbi” Sánchez, whose nickname came from a tongue-twister nursery song his elder sister used to sing him as a child, grew up in the small rural town of Caobitas. He was poor but surrounded by song and rum. Determined to make his way as a musician, he founded his trio in 1935 in the larger city of Santiago de Cuba with his friends Pedro Filiú, singer and maraquero (maracas player), and Luis Bosch, guitarist and tres player. It was always said of Maximilano Sánchez (even when he was a bandleader of the Trío Oriental in the years of highest popularity) that his easy-going and ebullient personality, and propensity for laughter and jokes, never matched his imperious first name, so he adopted the far lighter nickname “Bimbi,” which is how students of Latin music history will always remember him.

Like all musicians from Santiago, and with the runaway success of Trío Matamoros foremost in their thoughts, the three young itinerant trovadores tried their luck in Havana. Not long after hitting the bars and bodegas of the big city, Bimbi Y Su Trío Oriental signed a recording contract with RCA Victor in 1937 and began to sing on the radio stations of Havana to some acclaim.

While Matamoros was known for the bolero and bolero-son, Bimbi excelled at the suggestive and humorous double-entendre lyrics of the guaracha, sung in beguiling harmonies, set to the beat and special stringed interplay of the son oriental. Without leaving aside other genres such as son montuno, son-bolero, son-afro and son-pregón, it is the saucy and somewhat salacious guaracha that constituted most of the group’s repertoire, with the majority of the compositions and arrangements being by Bimbi himself or his friend Antonio Fernández, aka Ñico Saquito. Saquito and Bimbi were such good friends that the two joined forces in El Cuarteto Compay Gallo for a short stint in 1940, with Saquito also becoming a member of Bimbi’s Trío Oriental briefly in the mid-40s and Sánchez’s trio then recording under the name Los Guaracheros De Oriente in 1946.

Bimbi traveled a lot in his first decade as a professional bandleader, spreading the music of El Trío Oriental throughout the Caribbean with a period of great popularity in Puerto Rico (1939) and Venezuela, as well as in Colombia, where he first heard the costeño sound of the porro (a Colombian cumbia rhythm that developed into its own subgenre). He also returned to Puerto Rico at the end of the decade and had several dates in New York in 1950, deciding to settle there in 1951.

While in New York, Bimbi formed a new trio with Cuso Mendoza (conga, vocals, 1951-1954) whom he had met in Cuba, and Neftalí Piñeiro (guitar, 1951-1954). Together, they recorded a series of 78 singles for various labels, as well as for Bimbi’s own label, Titan Records. In addition to his work with his trio, Bimbi performed and recorded merengues with an accordionist, as well as a set of “campesino” music featuring Cuban sonero Pio Leyva and a saxophonist, and some porros with two clarinetists accompanying the Colombian songstress Esther Forero.

He returned to Santiago in 1954 and took a year off, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and taking a break from touring. The trio came back to life the following year and recorded four songs with Octavio González, guitar; Ramón González, percussion; Mariano Rivera, double bass; with Bimbi and Félix Castrillón on vocals. At the end of the decade, Bimbi increased the size of his trio to a “conjunto,” working and recording with Ñico Saquito and others in Santiago and Havana. After the Cuban Revolution, Bimbi returned to New York in 1963, releasing several records on small labels without much success at the time, retiring from performance in 1968, and ending his days in Florida. Though many different styles of popular Latin dance music emerged in popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, eclipsing and obscuring Bimbi Y Su Trío Oriental’s contribution to its roots, the jolly Cuban trovador from Oriente is certainly to be considered a forefather of salsa and his impact in Puerto Rico and Colombia are not to be underestimated.

-Pablo Yglesias