Like Celia Cruz, La Sonora Matancera, Machito, Beny Moré, Arsenio Rodríguez, Pérez Prado and Trio Matamoros, Los Guaracheros de Oriente are icons of Cuba’s “Golden Age'' of music. They were cultural ambassadors whose infectious sound traveled around the world, influencing generations of musicians to come, and as such are forebears of New York salsa. Founded in the mid-1940s by prolific singer-songwriter Benito Antonio Fernández Ortiz (January 17, 1902, Santiago de Cuba – August 4, 1982, Santiago de Cuba), better known as Ñico Saquito, the group was also one of Cuba’s most long-lived and beloved purveyors of the guitar-based “Oriente” trova (troubadour) sound from the island’s eastern region. Antonio Fernández’s compositions endure to this day and are considered “standards” of typical, authentic Cuban music from the 20th Century. His best known songs are “Cuidadito Compay Gallo,” “Echale Tierra Y Tápala,” “María Cristina,” “Adiós Compay Gato,” “Al Vaivén De Mi Carreta,” “Camina Como Chencha” and “Amarrao Compé.”

Ñico Saquito’s first success was with Trio Matamoros’ interpretation of his composition “Cuidadito Compay Gallo” in 1936. Soon after, Saquito decided to start his own band, which, after a number of personnel and name changes settled on its most durable and celebrated lineup as a quartet in 1948 (though some maintain that it was in 1946). The diminutive and dapper Ñico Saquito -- whose nickname roughly translates to “Little Anthony Sack” and stems from the fact that when he was younger he was an ace baseball player and moreover, an excellent catcher -- was director, primary composer and occasional lead vocalist. Though he was nominally the leader, Saquito primarily sang backup coro and always kept a steady beat with minor percussion (he was a noted maraquero or maracas player) while Félix ‘El Gallego’ Escobar (February 21, 1923, Manzanillo) -- equally short but just as chubby as Ñico was thin -- usually sang lead vocal and played ‘timablito’ (the timbalito, sometimes also referred to as paila, is a small set of timbales with cowbell attached). The first guitar position was held by the extremely talented Gerardo ‘El Chino’ Macías who also sang coro and always sported a signature mustache. In addition to their poetic and often humorous lyric repertoire, most of it stemming from Saquito’s fertile authorial imagination, and the trio’s compelling harmonies, it is El Chino’s thrilling nimble-fingered guitar leads that distinguished Los Guaracheros’ sound and helped inspire African popular music styles with similar guitar from Congolese rumba to Ghanaian highlife. The quartet was rounded out by the rhythmic strumming in counterpoint by second guitarist Florencio ‘Pícolo’ Santana, who also sang baritone chorus and was the tallest of the group. El Pícolo had been with Ñico since 1940, when he had formed the Conjunto Compay Gallo in order to capitalize on his song’s runaway success with his friend Miguel Matamoros.

By 1950 they were busy cutting sides for RCA Victor Records; success and world travel were soon to come, propelled by Ñico’s entertaining compositions, many of them with playfully risqué double entendre lyrics, as well as his connections to influential Havana radio stations where he had been talent scout and programming advisor. After taking part in the film “Rincón Criollo,” alongside other stars like Celina Y Reutilio, Celia Cruz, and Blanquita Amaro, in 1951 they traveled for the second time to Venezuela to fulfill commitments in the Carnivals of Caracas and Maracaibo, where they remained for three years. They also traveled during the 1950s to Europe, South, Central and North America as well as all over the Caribbean. After their extended stay in Venezuela, work for Los Guaracheros began to dry up, so they set out on a return trip to Cuba. However, Saquito decided to stay in Maracaibo because it was not safe for him to return with them due to his revolutionary ideals during a time of political instability back home.

Throughout the first part of their career Los Guaracheros used several lead male voices in addition to Ñico and El Gallego, including Maximiliano ‘Bimbí’ Sánchez, Orlando Vallejo, Jack Sagué, Alfredito Valdés, Carlos Embale, Manolo Fernández, and the young heartthrob and television actor Ramón Velóz. The band also had an additional female vocalist who would sing coro. During this time they recorded for various Cuban and American labels including Montilla, Gema, Panart, Maype, and Verne, though their most prolific run was with New York’s Ansonia Records. For some of these recordings Los Guaracheos would augment their lineup with additional instrumentalists including the noted trumpet player Alejandro ‘El Negro’ Vivar. One of their most successful contracts lasted for three years at Havana’s famed and glamorous Tropicana nightclub.

Once Ñico was no longer with the group, Félix ‘El Gallego’ Escobar assumed the musical direction of the remaining trio in exile. Los Guaracheros de Oriente eventually settled in Puerto Rico in the 1960s, the island of Borinquén being a welcoming country that, like for their friend Guillermo Portabales (a talented singer who recorded with Los Guaracheros), and pianist René Hernández, became a second homeland for El Gallego, El Chino and El Pícolo. Though San Juan was a base of operations for Los Guaracheros, they also spent three busy years in Miami, Florida, playing residencies in various luxury hotel nightclubs. Meanwhile Ñico Saquito, who had aligned himself with Fidel Castro’s revolution, returned to Havana and became the artist-in-residence for the tiny bohemian tavern La Bodeguita del Medio in Habana Vieja. With the ebullient and rotund El Gallego front and center, the Guaracheros continued to perform throughout Latin America (they were particularly popular in Colombia and Peru) during the 1970s and 80s, and would always keep their old friend and former director Ñico’s compositions at the forefront of their repertoire, recording their final album in 1985 for Caiman Records with Fania’s Johnny Pacheco at the helm, after which El Chino and El Pícolo retired. In 1997 El Chino passed away, followed soon after by El Pícolo in 2002. Undeterred, Escobar kept Los Guaracheros going with the participation of the Puerto Rican guitarist and second voice Israel Berríos (who had played with Arsenio Rodríguez on Ansonia Records) and the legendary Cuban tres player Eduardo Saborit. After a decade with this final lineup Los Guaracheros were finally laid to rest with Escobar’s death on Friday, October 13, 2006, though their music continues to live on to this day in the hearts of many. It’s no understatement to say Ñico Saquito and Los Guaracheros de Oriente made an immense and crucial contribution to Latin music history (and to typical Cuban music in particular) with a vast body of work that remains as vital and important today as it did when they were in their prime fifty years ago.

Son De La Loma

Los Guaracheros de Oriente cut seven albums with Ansonia Records, between the years of 1963 and 1978, much of it covering their hits of old, rerecorded under excellent production conditions, with special attention given to compositions by Ñico Saquito and Miguel Matamoros. In 1963 they signed with Ansonia for three years (with the option to add another year) for a total of four LP releases, probably while they were already performing in Miami during that period. One assumes they had a good relationship with Ralph Pérez because they remained with Ansonia for another decade after the first contract expired, staying beyond Pérez’s death in 1969 and continuing with Herman and Mercedes Glass at the helm, working with them longer than with any other label in their four decades of recording as Los Guaracheros de Oriente. No doubt Ansonia was the perfect place for their unadorned, “típico” and folkloric tropical sound, since the label was known for servicing a niche immigrant market with traditional, often rural “roots” music from the Caribbean (though much of it was recorded in the urban hub of Manhattan). It also just so happened that Ansonia had deals with Colombia and Peru where this type of authentic old-school Cuban music was always popular, influencing a legion of guitar-led tropical bands, especially in Lima.

Los Guaracheros’ seventh volume, titled Son De La Loma, came at a time in New York when there was a small but crucial revival of traditional Cuban music led by a musical group of the very same name, Son De La Loma, and the Cuban roots revival movement spread across several independent labels on the scene, most notably Salsoul, SAR and Montuno. This was probably in reaction to the ever-increasing commercialization of salsa at the time, but also due to the fact that there were people like producer and historian René López who were interested in investigating and reviving the earlier roots of salsa. The material that Los Guaracheros recorded across their seven-volume run with Ansonia fit in perfectly with this trend, and is consistently rich and rewarding, though you can see from a comparison of the first and last album cover photos that the ensuing fifteen years had aged El Gallego, El Chino and El Pícolo visibly. But if one compares the first with the last LP from a recording quality standpoint, it’s self-evident that for Son De La Loma they were still going strong in 1978 and had lost nothing of their classic sound. The usual satisfying mix of up-tempo and slower tunes is here, with plenty of sabor criollo (creole flavor) and a thrilling combination of classics versus new cover versions keeping things fresh throughout. The production is minimal and natural, which is actually to the band’s advantage as they shine most brilliantly when not hampered by “sweetening” like echo effects, panning or added instruments. Son De La Loma consists of nothing more than voices, stringed instruments and percussion; it’s Cuban “country music” (música campesina) at its most típico and pure, showcasing these veteran trovadores with nothing to hide, stripped down to their most elemental core.

The album kicks off with the son guajiro “Oye Mi Le Lo Lai,” one of Celina González’s most beloved tunes, written by campesino music composer and guitarist Miguel Ojeda, leader of Conjunto Palmas Y Cañas, Celina’s backing band on the original version. Celina and her husband Reutilio had recorded for Ansonia decades earlier, and their mark can also be heard on the “santero” number dedicated in praise of the powerful female Yoruba deity (or orisha) named Yemayá. There is a second santero tune, also dedicated to a female orisha (Oyá), composed by noted Afro-Cuban rumbero Justi Barreto; both tracks have the complicated and beautiful polyrhythmic beats of the ritual music of the popular syncretic Cuban religion Santería. The other classic Cuban forms Los Guaracheros explore on this diverse sounding record are the funky rural son montuno and guajiro genres as well as the son oriental from their home region in the album’s title song, their old friend Miguel Matamoros’ most famous composition “Son de la Loma.” No Guaracheros album would be complete without a guaracha, the rhythm they’re named after. The playfully picaresque and dance-friendly guaracha “Ki Ki Ri Ki'' is probably one of their most fun songs from the Ansonia catalog. It sounds like a classic African rumba from the Congo but tells of a Cuban country girl (a guajira) enjoying the “salsa” played by Los Guaracheros de Oriente. The song “Estoy Hecho Tierra” (I’m Made Of Earth) is also a fantastic rendition of one of their old popular chestnuts composed by their original leader, Ñico Saquito; it definitely gives the original a run for its money. For a spine-tingling taste of Cuban patriotism, go no further than “Patria Querida” with its fantastic guitar lines and nostalgic lyrics praising the inspiration that Cuba brings its people through their freedom struggles against colonial Spain. Inspiration also comes from farther afield with two different sounding merengues, enlivening the proceedings nicely. “La Sapuara'' is about the legendarily addictive fish of the same name from the Orinoco River in Venezuela, a delicacy that is so tasty that once you have a stew made from its head, you’ll never want to leave the region. Of course this legend would have a special resonance for Los Guaracheros, having spent so much time there earlier in their career. Although it sounds more like a fast cumbia crossed with a 6/8 Afro-Venezuelan beat than your typical merengue from the Dominican Republic, it fits right in with their Cuban repertoire since they give it that special Guaracheros spin. The other merengue, “Loreta,” is an actual Dominican classic by Luis Alberti and was an early hit for Angel Viloria Y Su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño with Dioris Valladares released by Ansonia in 1952. Throughout the record, El Chino’s electrified acoustic guitar chimes clear as a bell and El Gallego’s lead vocals are vital and entertaining, indicating that this is the sound of Cuba in all its diversity and typicalness (“cubanidad”). What’s impressive as well is that the three Guaracheros can still keep their great harmonies of old. To top it off there is an (uncredited) bass player on the sessions, a welcome feature that adds a satisfying high-fidelity low end to the proceedings, lending the entire record a sonic richness sometimes lacking on their early records from the 1940s and 50s. All-in-all Son De La Loma is a fitting end cap to Los Guaracheros de Oriente’s impressive seven album run on Ansonia Records, and today’s audience will no doubt be entranced by the pungent potpourri of authentic, unadorned Caribbean flavor in its grooves.

-Pablo Yglesias