The Candelario Vázquez vihuela-bordonúa

The late Candelario Vázquez' vihuela-bordonúa held by his son.
Photo Sotomayor

We went looking for Candelario Vázquez' instrument in Juncos, Puerto Rico and found it--a treasured heirloom in the possession of the Vázquez family. Below is the elder Candelario Vázquez (know to all as don Candó) when he was alive and actively playing his beloved instrument:

 Listen to Candelario Vázquez (at an advanced age) playing the melody line of a danza on the instrument that he called bordonúa, while accompanied by a guitarist. 

Candó's instrument is similar in size, shape, floating fingerboard (see photo immediately at right) and over-size frets as the others, but is distinctive in that its soundboard is purposefully sunken and the strings are raised at the bridge by a massively carved bridge platform.
 

The José Velázquez' vihuela-bordonúa

The late José Velázquez' vihuela-bordonúa held by his son Luis Velázquez   
Photo Sotomayor

The Velázquez vihuela-bordonúa appears to share precisely the same template outline and dimensions as both the Vázquez and Font instruments, implying a similar maker. However they are significantly different in detail, suggesting that different makers shared the same template but each built their instrument according to their own tastes, abilities and resources.

They all share the distinctive over-sized frets, but differ in how they are individually attached to the instrument. They share a floating fingerboard as seen immediately below,

..but includes a peculiar series of bicycle-spoke reinforcements cris-crossing the interior of the soundbox. The fanciful differences of each instrument, while strictly maintaining a series of immutable features seems to point to several builders sharing the same set of template shape and measurements passed on from an earlier time, but each displaying variations according to each builder's sensibilities.
 

 The Andrés Font vihuela-bordonúa

Andrés Font's vihuela-bordonúa is a treasured relic housed at the Cultural Museum in the historic Casa Roig in Humacao, PR. 

The vihuela-bordonúa at the Museo de Música de Ponce [Ponce Museum of Music]

This vihuela-bordonúa is housed at the Museum of Music in Ponce. Unfortunately they are unable to provide any information about it. It is of extremely rustic construction, from a template outline different from that of Vázquez and Velázquez instruments. The fingerboard seems to have been replaced after it was completed, perhaps a fingerboard from another instrument: see how it covers the soundhole like an afterthought. 

The vihuela-bordonúas of Vicente Valentín

The vihuela-bordonúas of Cristobal Santiago 

The ICPR/Francisco López Cruz rescue

Francisco López Cruz toca una vihuela-bordonúa de estilo nuevo hecho por Leoncio Ortiz de Corozal

El Dr. Francisco "Paquito" López Cruz (1909-1988) participa en la creación de un inventario de manifestaciones culturales puertorriqueñas emprendido por el Gobierno de Puerto Rico a través del establecimiento del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña en 1955, liderado por Ricardo Alegría. Entre otros proyectos para el ICPR, emprende un rescate del instrumento que el nombra "bordonúa", la cual el mismo declara es descendiente de la vihuela--aunque es a la antigua vihuela española a la que se refiere. Sugiere una nueva encordadura moderna para el instrumento, rechazando las inescrutables encordaduras de las originales vihuela-bordonúas. Bajo su auspicio, el Instituto comisiona a prominentes artesanos como Vicente Valentín (visto arriba), Antonio Rodriguez Navarro, y Leoncio Ortiz a recrear ejemplares modernizadas del instrumento.

 The vihuela-bordonúas of Aurelio Cruz Pagán

The vihuela-bordonúas of Eugenio Méndez

The vihuela-bordonúas of William Cumpiano

The vihuela-bordonúas of the Cuatro Project

The vihuela-bordonúas of Secundino Merced

The very narrow upper and very wide lower bout are distinctive of the vihuela-bordonúas of Secundino Merced (1906-1925) of Aguas Buenas, PR.

These so-called bordonúas are cloaked in mystery: nobody really remembers how to play them, mostly because their odd stringing and string spacing arrangements seems to defy categorization. Curiously, cultural preservationists nonetheless recreated modern versions of the instrument, changing them even further from the original models. They changed them in virtually every regard: in size, shape, stringing, tuning...all in an effort to make them more accessible and easier to play for modern players. Preservation through change: a odd effort, indeed! These present day replicas, these "modern bordonúas," are quite successful on their own terms: many are beautiful in workmanship and beautiful to hear. They have even spurred several excellent players to produce beautiful recordings with them. But these newly minted instruments have very little--only superficial resemblance to the relics whose "tradition" they are supposed to be preserving.

But the curiousity doesn't end here; those old preserved relics in the collections are themselves significantly different from the bordonuas that were in existence during the century before them, the 19th century. All the bordonúa relics have up to ten doubled and single metal strings, tuned to a melodic register--they were strung to play the melody part in string bands. They also had multiple soundholes.

When we researched several old books written in the 19th century about Puerto Rican customs, what they described as bordonuas were large guitar-shaped instruments with six single (probably gut) strings. The name bordonúa itsels appears to derive from the term bordón--which since antiquity actually means "a thick, low-pitched instrument string." So it appears reasonable to conclude that an instrument with bordones be called bordonùa. Indeed, having bordones would have impated to them a deep sound--that is, deeper than the sounds of the other stringed instruments in the traditional instrumental group. We now that these lower-pitched, 6 single string bordonuas were being played around 100-150 years ago in Puerto Rico. None of them physically survive in this form today. Nobody remembers what they looked or sounded like, either, save for a glimpse of them seen in a 19th century painting.

The early-20th century surviving namesake relics are also unplayable, but we could tell from their pegs, nuts and bridges, and some of the surviving strings themselves, that they were made to be strung--not with six single large gut strings--but instead with 8-10 single and double thin gauge strings made of steel. That would have given them a bright, shiny, metallic voice. Also, the children and grandchildren of the old-timers who actually played those 20th century bordonuas insisted that they never played the lower-register accompaniment, rather, they always played the principal melody-line voice in musical groups. They also said they had never heard of them ever having six single strings, either.

This was the puzzle we faced and which confused us for 10 years: two significantly different instruments with the same name, bordonúa. And nobody ever remembering a six-string, lower-register instrument also called bordonúa, either, regardless that they were described that way in the old 19th century descriptions.

Just recently we noted two interesting details: the way the younger bordonúa relics were strung and tuned were all similar to the ancient Spanish vihuelas and later, 17th and 18th-century guitars. These were strung with eight, nine or ten strings and tuned in guitar-like intervals. And all of these were all customarily lumped together with the same name: vihuela. Coincidentally also, those present-day museum relics that came to be called bordonúas had multiple sound holes, just like the ancient Spanish vihuelas. So these so called "bordonúas" carried on them traces of the ancient Spanish vihuelas, and the tunings and stringing arrangements that recalled the later Spanish "vihuelas."

Going back to those old 19th century descriptions, they all included a mysterious fourth member of the family of Puerto Rican native instruments. There indeed existed during the nineteenth century, possibly earlier, another distinctive guitar-like native instrument called vihuela in Puerto Rico--which nobody ever talks about or even has heard about today anywhere in Puerto Rico. It's another "disappeared" or forgotten Puerto Rican stringed instrument that was once described in the Puerto Rican countryside in the 19th century texts--but is completely unknown and unheard-of in Puerto Rico today. And what do those 19th century texts say about the forgotten vihuela jíbara? They had "up to ten strings" and they played the melodic register in musical groups, groups that also included tiples, cuatros, and bordonúas in various arrangements. And that their ancient namesakes, the earlier Spanish "vihuelas" had multiple soundholes and were strung with eight, nine or ten strings in guitar-like intervals.

The only way to fit all these disparate facts together into a reasonable description of what occurred was that there actually were four native Puerto Rican instruments in the 19th century: tiple, cuatro, 6- string bordonúa and "up to ten" string vihuela. Only the tiple, cuatro and vihuela survive into the 20th century, the 6-string bordonúa disappearing at the beginning of the 20th century. The vihuela, with its multiple soundholes and ancient vihuela stringing survives into the 20th century but it's old name is forgotten and Puerto Ricans bestowed upon it the name of the extinct bordonúa. So we can conclude that in modern times 'the complete family of Puerto Rican stringed instruments consistes of the tiple, the cuatro and an instrument called a vihuela which came to be called bordonúa.

There are quite a few historical precedents for name-shifting string instruments and we found several other instruments that were called several names at once, or the same instrument with different names at different times or places, or that instruments physically changed without the old name changing--or similarly, that different instruments in different periods had the same name. In instrument history, instrument names are often fluid in this manner. In Puerto Rico there are other instances of fluid instrument names. Take the cuatro. The cuatro is named because it had four strings. A completely different instrument but with a similar usage appears in the late nineteenth century--with 10 metal strings tuned completely differently--and Puerto Ricans called THAT a cuatro too. In some places the bordonua was called a "large tiple". In Spain the name "vihuela" stuck and remained the name of different twelve, ten, nine, and eight string guitar-like instruments across the centuries.

The era that followed the Second World War is marked by the migration of our jíbaros to the North American continent. Wherever they settled, they brought their customs and traditions with them.  They left their small clod of native land to enter a much wider, freer world into which to make their talents known with the means and resources that were available to them. The artists listed here didn't necessarily begin their career during this decade, rather that during this time they became widely known throughout their own land and the United States by means of the radio, the theatres and the recording labels which proliferated not only in New York but also in other large cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey and other Eastern states. For example Luis Miranda began his career in 1924 but he emerges as a result of his recordings of the sixties and becomes widely famed as a result of his late seventies' recordings on the Ansonia label, the most prestigious of all the labels recording jíbaro music. The radio, television, the theatres and recordings allowed us to become familiar with veteran troubadours that had been up to them known only locally in their towns. During the fifties decade they become widely known in the boricua neighborhoods of Puerto Rico and the United States. 

Ernestina Reyes

La Calandria
1925-1994

A native of the town of San Lorenzo. Arguably, she is among the femenine voices the greatest exponent of Puerto Rican country music, with her registry of chords and arpeggios from her throat, and a pure jíbaro sentiment in her mountain music. Before producing her earliest recordings, she sang in duo with her sister when they were known as the Reyes Sisters [Las Hermanas Reyes].

Ernestina began her fame recording with Chuíto el de Bayamón and the Conjunto Típico Ladí in 1947 for the RCA Victor label. She left us a legacy of unforgettable recordings upon her death a few years ago.         

Listen to La Calandria accompanied by Francisco Ortiz Piñeiro, Maso Rivera on cuatro and Felipe Rosario Goyco on guitar. This audio was extracted from an old DivEdCo film.

Biography of Ernestina Reyes on the Fundación para la Cultura Popular (Spanish only)

Germán Rosario

El Jíbaro de Yumac
1914-1972

Germán Rosario Rivera was born in the Membrillos neighborhood of Camuy in 1914. He began singing décimas at age twelve and is considered "the king of the troubadours."

His given stage name was the “Jíbaro del Yumac” (Yumac is Camuy spelled backwards) was a troubadour and poet of the highest rank who elevated the traditional décima verso to the highest pedestals with his rich vocabulary, rhetoric and muse.

* We have a page dedicated to Germán Rosario here.

 One of his greatest hits was El Múcaro en la Horqueta. [The owl in the crotch of the tree]

Listen to Germán Rosario sing Endrújula.

Juan Morales Ramos

Moralito
El Cantor de Tierra Adentro

Moralito was born around 1924. He is considered the greatest of the pie forzao improvisors among the other Morales Ramos brothers, Ramito y Luisito.

Among the many recordings he left behind on acetate  as La Yegua del Permante en el Rabo, Allá en la Altura, Una Emisora en el Cielo and other country numbers marked by their fine country twang.

Among his many achievements is the creation of the seis guagancó. Listen to a sample here.

He died in 1988 as a result of medical complications after suffering an automobile accident that resulted in the amputation of his legs.

* We've created a page dedicated to Moralito here.

Luz Celenia Tirado

La Jíbara de las Lomas
La Dama de la Décima

She became known during her programs of jíbaro music in Mayagüez, during one which she featured the great Jibarito de Lares while still a child. Born in 1928 and raised in the town of San Germán, where she is still active cultivating her verse, prose and inspiration with the lyrical rhetoric of country song.

She was among the first voices on the jibaro programs on Mayagüez radio and she recorded innumerable controversias with the greatest jíbaro décima singers, such as Germán Rosario.  She also appeared with Odilio González singing Una Tercera Persona and other popular themes.

* We've put together a page dedicated to Lux Celenia here. 

 Listen to a fragment of the Seis Chorreao Cosecharemos Cemento [We'll harvest cement] sung by the La Jíbara de las Lomas

Juan Inés Aponte

Juaniquillo
el Zorzal de la Montaña
El Zorzal de Orocovis

  Originally from the town of Orocovis. He was one of the bards that stood out so much on radio as he did on television, singing his jíbaro music in front of the public. He enjoy much fame as a troubadour, especially in Caguas, where he would appear to do his programs. He left us several recordings, most of them on 78 rpm platter. He dies a tragic death in Puerto Rico. 

 Listen to Juaniquillo here, backed by the group led by Gala Hernández Pabón. The audio was extracted from a 1958 called Parranda Campesina made by the PR Government's División de Educación de la Comunidad [DIVEDCO].

 Another example of the song of the great Juaniquillo, an     enramada in plena rhythym.

Juaniquillo sings La Fiesta del Cabrito [Festival of the Goat] back by Arturito Avilés on cuatro

 Backed by the female singer Nereida Maldonado and the cuatrista ArturitoAvilés, Juaniquillo sings Dímelo Cantando. [Tell me in song]

José Ángel Ortiz

El Jíbaro de Yauco

   Originally from the town of Yauco, José Ángel Ortiz was one of the pioneers on the West coast region of Mayagüez. He displays his talents through performances and recordings made in New York and New Jersey.     
    He was on of the early performers on the radio on the old Mayagüez radio program, Fiesta en el Batey. [Backyard Festival]
   One of the best improvisers of his times--the elder décima singers Baltazar Carrero and Luis Miranda have called him the best improviser among all of them--he was almost as good as Germán Rosario during a décima competition in New York. We are told that he died tragically in his town of Yauco, when him and his horse fell down a cliff.

* We have developed a page for the Jíbaro de Yauco here

 Listen to the Jíbaro de Yauco recite Muriendo Nuestra Cultura,
and an Homenaje a German Rosario

Baltazar Carrero

El Jíbaro de Rincón

    A comical composer who posessed an distinctive deep jíbaro voice. One of our most distinctive jíbaro singers in the real of Puerto Rican music, he wa born in the town of Rincon. Her recorded four records on the Ansionia label and several LPs for Casa Flor, among others.
   According to the folklorist José Gumersindo Torres, his most popular hit was El Jíbaro Terminao [The Finely-Finished Jíbaro] as well as other funny pieces that he left behind in his jíbaro voice. 
     Carrero made very few public performances. He revealed in 1976, while in Nueva York, that he hadn't sung in public since 1956.

* Visit our page dedicated to Baltazar Carrero.

Isabel Dávila

La Chabela

    She began her artistic career on the radio singing on the Santurce station WIAC, singing with Chuíto el de Bayamón.

 Listen to La Chabela in the controversia with Germán Rosario, Mujer Dominante

You'll find a high-resolution copy of the beautiful La Chabela illustration here.

 Juan A. Romero Muñiz
Toñín Romero

A native of the Coabey sector of Jayuya. Born in 1919, he was an adopted son of the city of Ponce, where he arrived at the age of ten and where he died and was buried.
   He was a bastion of our décima and also especially of our plena music. He was a great promoter of our traditional music by means of his radio programs, such as La Hora Campesina [The Farmer's Hour] on Ponce radio station WPAB; Fiesta en el Batey [Backyard Party] on WISO; and on his own record label, JARM. We remember him on his radio program in Ponce with Gelo Febles' group every Sunday. His brothers Moisés and Esteban and his son appeared together on the television program Borinquen Canta [Borinquen Sings].
     Toñín didn't record very much but he wrote several musical treasures such as the plena Ni de Madera son Buenas [Even the wooden ones are no good] recorded by Odilio González; Con el Casco del Juey [With the Shell of the Crab] that he recorded himself; El Charlatán recorded by Ismael Rivera with Lito Peña's orchestra; El Cofresito [The little coffer] recorded by Ruth Fernández.

Listen to Toñín sing 
Ni de Madera son Buenas

* See our page dedicated to Toñín Romero

We also have a page dedicated to the singer of Toñín Romero's Grupo Campesino, Bautista Ramos

Luis Morales Ramos

Luisito

Also known as El Montañero [Man of the mountains], he was the youngest of the great traditional music triumverate: the three brothers: Ramito, Luisito and Moralito, from the prodigious family residing in the Bairoa neighbor- hood of Caguas.
    Born in 1928, Luisito possessed a strong, ringing country voice, as he aptly demonstrated in his two classic songs, Padre Nuestro and Boricua de Arriba Abajo. He developed several seis variants of his own which were added to the traditional repertory.

Luis Morales Ramos died in 2009.

Listen to Luisito sing Divino Maestro  [Divine Master]

 Listen to Luisito sing Repartiendo Lechón [Sharing the roast pig]

  Luisito sings Celebrando la Navidad [Celebrating Christmas]

* We have a page dedicated to the great troubadour Luis Morales Ramos. 

Odilio González
El Jibarito de Lares

Perhaps the greatest traditional singer of all time, Odilio was born in Lares in 1939. After arriving in Arecibo as an adolescent, he made his name renown on the radio. He later debuted in New York in 1955, when he recorded his first jíbaro hits. He was one of our child stars during the music's Golden Age during the nineteen fifties.
     By 1962, he had recorded the hit Celos sin Motivo  [Pointless Jealously] by Ismael Santiago and with it he opens a wide berth into a successful caree in pop music as well as in Puerto Rican traditional song.

Listen the the young Odilio González sing Mi Música Campesina--My Country Music.

Another sample of Odilio's singing when he was a child star: Así Vive el Jibarito--[That's How the Little Jibaro Lives].

* See our Odilio Gonzalez page here, with additional photos and commentary.

José Miguel Class
El Gallito de Manatí

     Nace en 1940 en el  barrio Pugnado Adentro de Manatí. Luego pasa a Santurce, donde comienza su carrera joven, niño aun, como lo hizo Odilio González para los mismos años, grabando su primer disco para la Casa Ansonia cuando aún un adolescente. Luego hace dos grabaciones puramente jíbaras con la Casa Neliz, Tu Patria y la Mía y luego, Fiesteando en Navidad.   
     Se consideraba como la competencia de Odilio González, en esos días. Ambos grabaron Celos sin Motivos, pero El Jibarito de Lares fue el que lo pegó en el populacho boricua. Su éxito radicó en la ranchera puertorriqueña, que empieza a grabar para los años sesenta. Su fresca y timbrada voz se oyó y deleitó también por toda Sudamérica. Filmó la película El Gallo y aún se mantiene activo.

He aquí un enlace a una magnífica biografía del Gallito de Manatí en la página del Internet de Juan Torres Rivera.

Nereida Maldonado
La Jíbara de Salón

Nereida Maldonado, oriunda de Fajardo, ha cultivado el verso en prosa del cantar de la Espinela. Dueña de una melodía y entonación en conversación con el jíbaro diapasón de la guitarra y el cuatro. Indiscutiblemente, una de nuestras mejores cantoras del cántico del batey.

Oigan a Nereida cantar Campiña Borincana acompañada de Roque Navarro.

Nereida canta Picando Caña, acompañado de Arturito Avilés en el cuatro

Otra vez Nereida, pero aquí respaldado con Juaniquillo y Arturito Avilés, cantando Dímelo Cantando

Víctor Rolón Santiago
El Jibarito de la Montaña

 Víctor Rolón Santiago era natural de Cayey. Tenía buena fama de improvisador y de acuerdo al folklorista Joaquín Rivera, en controversia con Juaniquillo, su pie forzao era: Esos versos tuyos los uso para buscar agua en el pozo.
     Con poca educación escolar, en su musa sencilla se enfrentó a un monstruo sagrado del arte de improvisar como German Rosario y salió bastante airoso ante el desafío.

Notas adicionales del folklorista Joaquín Rivera

Victor Rólon Santiago canta Por Ser Loco y No Pensar  acompañado de un tal Yomo Toro quemando las cuerdas de un requinto.

  En 1956 un dentista de Brooklyn NY, de descendencia latvia viajó a la isla y grabó a Victor Rolón y su Cuarteto Puerto Rico de Cayey improvisando una decimilla a un Aguinaldo Cagueño y una décima a un Seis Mapeyé

Miguel Ángel Figueroa

El Jíbaro de Adjuntas

Durante su larga trayectoria grabó muchos discos de música folklórica, incluyendo Rancheras y Boleros Jíbaros. En sus últimos años se dedicó, igual que don Luis Miranda, "El Pico de Oro", a interpretar temas religiosos por su conversión al cristianismo.

 Oigan al Jíbaro de Adjuntas en el Seis de Adjuntas titulado, 
Las Muchachas de Adjuntas

 Miguel Ángel Figueroa canta un Aire Navideño

 Maso Rivera lo acompaña en esta Parranda Campesina extraída de un film de DIVEDCO con el mismo nombre

 La Parranda Campesina con un seis chorreao de Miguel Ángel Figueroa sigue aquí.

Maria Esther Acevedo

...se da a conocer en Caguas, donde se escuchaban sus dulces cantíos criollos a través de las ondas radiales cagueñas, compartiendo con titanes de la trova como Luis Miranda "El Pico de Oro", Ramito, El Montañero, Moralito, Pecho de Bronce, Goyo Rivera y otros bardos del valle del Turabo. Su cántico -- agudo y melódico, al compás de los géneros variantes del Seis, demuestran su valía en la música campesina. Su vida fue corta y sus grabaciones pocas también. No se puede hablar de nuestras cantoras sin mencionar su honroso nombre.

Oigan a María Esther Acevedo, acompañada por Paquito López Cruz y su grupo en un Aguinaldo que destaca el  tiple puertorriqueño.

María Esther Acevedo canta Fiesta Jíbara respaldado por Arturito Avilés en el cuatro

  María Esther Acevedo canta una triste cadena titulada Lamento. Compárenlo con una cadena alegre cantada por Chuíto de Bayamón

 
Adela Hernández

     Natural de Quebradillas, nos representó con su cálida y aterciopelada voz en sus cantos de la música de tierra adentro.
     Adela es famosa por su estilo inigualable de interpretar nuestra música típica y recordamos sus presentaciones en la radio y la televisión, donde siempre desempeñó un buen papel. 

Irma E. Rodríguez

La Jibarita de Salinas

Oigan a Irma Rodríguez, acompañada de su esposo, Flor Morales Ramos, cantando Cadenas del 1800.
La Jíbarita de Salinas tiene su propia websitio.

Pedro Rivera Maldonado

Natural de Fajardo. Nombrado por Joaquín Mouliert como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica. Miembro de la Mesa Redonda.

Sixto Claudio

Natural del barrio Tomás de Castro de Caguas. Hermano mayor de Domingo Claudio.

Domingo Claudio

Natural del barrio Tomás de Castro de Caguas. Nació entre una familia musical de trovadores famosos como Jacinto y Sixto Claudio. Como muchos otros, empezó su carrera en la radio en la estación WRIA de Caguas.

Milagros Carrillos
La Jibarita de Canóvanas

 Oriunda de Canóvanas. Comenzó distinguiéndose en los cantares del terruño amado, donde hizo su aporte a nuestro más bello folklore con canciones como el Seis de Oriente a través del programa Tribuna del Arte. Más tarde se distinguió como actriz dramática en las novelas de la radio y la televisión.

Víctor Manuel Reyes
El Volo

Natural de Aguas Buenas. Nombrado por Luis Miranda como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica.

Pedro Sorio

Natural de Luquillo

Gumersindo Reyes

Natural de Barranquitas. Nombrado por Luis Miranda como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica.

    The decade of the forties brings us the Second World War and besides the arrival of many boricua immigrants to the New York City shores. By the forties, however, Puerto Rican traditional music had been only rarely recorded, but was heard often live on Island radio. Programs such as La Hora del Volante [The Steering Wheel Hour], Rey del Batey [King of the Backyard] and others--sponsored by companies selling beer and a variety of other products--served as a launching platform for many of our jíbaro singer-poets. Radio became the most popular medium for the introduction of new jíbaro singers during the forties, singers such as Germán Rosario, Priscila Flores, Ángel Luis García and others.
      Among these brave jíbaro defenders of our music who recorded during those years, some like Claudio Ferrer --although he was not an improvisador [improviser, who could improvise décima poems while singing them]--did interpret many jíbaro numbers, just as did other with great jíbaro interpreters [not improvisers] of jíbaro music. For example in 1940, the Grupo Marcano (with Claudio Ferrer) recorded the décima Como Criamos [How We Raise], written by Chuito el de Cayey, on the Columbia label. In 1944, Claudio Ferrer y sus Jíbaros recorded the song, Décima Amorosa [Romantic Décima], with Claudio and Natalia on the Seeco label.
      El Conjunto Típico Ladí also continued to record during the forties with Chuito el de Bayamón and others. In 1947, La Calandria (Ernestina Reyes) records her first songs on acetate, Un Jíbaro en Nueva York [A Jibaro in New York] and Vamos a Reyar [Let's Celebrate the Three Kings (Feast of the Epiphany)] backed by the Conjunto Típico Ladí, along with Chuito el de Bayamón.

     By 1948, jíbaro music began to be recorded with increasing frequency. Chuito el de Bayamón starts his own group Los Madrugadores [The Early Birds] (later known as the Trio Cialeño, with the great cuatrista Pancho Ortiz Piñeiro) including La Calandria. At the same time, Chuito recorded songs such as Elegia de Reyes [Elegy of the Three Kings] written by maestro Virgilio Dávila and Como Yo Canto [How I Sing] by maestro Arturo Silvagnoli.
     The great Ramito was placed under contract by the Ansonia recording company during 1948-49 and he began his rise as one of the most popular interpreters of our music. During this time Ramito recorded pieces such as La Familia Santa, Salud, Dinero y Amor, El Nacimiento del Mesías, El Huerfano en el Mundo, and others.
      By 1949, Claudio Ferrer is still introducing new singers of country music such as Ada María Carrillo singing the song María Y José on the Verne label. The rising demand for our music, coupled with the growth of the Puerto Rican community in New York, join to open the way towards th Golden Age of our country music...the 1950s.

The forties began to bring a small measure of progress to the isle of Borinquen and by this time there were five radio stations: WKAQ (1922, San Juan), WNEL (1934, San Juan), WPRP (1936, Ponce), WPRA, (1937, Mayagüez) and WPAB, (1940, Ponce). With the growth of radio broadcasting, the fame of the following singers grew:

Jesús Sánchez Erazo

Chuíto el de Bayamón

Born in Bayamón in 1900 and dying in 1979, "The dean of singers" was the first in Puerto Rico to sing jíbaro music on the radio. Chuíto was one fo the most beloved jíbaro singers in Puerto Rican musical history. When he was young, he began his career with the Conjunto Típico Ladí, composed of Ladí and Sarriel Archilla on the cuatro, Don Felo on the guitar and Toribio on the gourd-rasp, in the days when the group was known as Industrias Nativas. In the 50’s he continued his career singing for his own group, Los Madrugadores, which became the Trio Cialeño with the cuatrista Pancho Ortiz Piñeiro and later with Nieves Quintero during the Ansonia recordings
His décimas, aguinaldos and controversias were usually funny or patriotic, but were rarely sad.

Su éxito más sonado fue "La Vieja Voladora" en su inimitable estilo de Seis Villarán  
    
  Oigan una entrevista con Chuíto hecha en 1976 con Gilbert Mamery. En el mismo cuenta de sus experiencias como tabaquero (torcedor de cigarros puros).

Óiganlo aquí cantar la Canción del Tabaquero sin acompañamiento.Chuíto cantaba las cadenas, las antiguas canciones de los carreteros, desde muchacho. Oigan aquí a la cadena titulada Mis Recuerdos. Compárenlo con una cadena triste de María Esther Acevedo

Flor Morales Ramos

Ramito
El Cantor de la Montaña

 Ramito…nuestro máximo exponente e intérprete de la música jíbara de Puerto Rico y de su inigualable le lo lai.
   El tronco de la décima puertorriqueña, cantó a carta cabal como todo un ruiseñor la criollísima trova. Nadie ha cantado, ni cantará, un aguinaldo cagueño, un mariandá, una enramada o un mapeyé como El Cantor de la Montana.
   Su carta de presentación donde quiera que plantó bandera fue La Esposa Muerta.
     Ramito comenzó su carrera artística con el Conjunto Típico Ladí cuando grabó 4 canciones para el sello RCA Victor en el año 1939. He aquí dos de aquellas rarísimas grabaciones:

Estrella del Oriente

Pueblos de la Isla

Pero a nuestro parecer, los dos temas más bellos y resaltantes del gran cantante fueron:

 La Familia Santa

Linda Borinqueña

Tenemos una página dedicada a Ramito aquí. Esta página es parte de una sección dedicada a los tres hermanos Morales.

Arturo Silvagnoli

Se distinguió en Ponce en la música de la campiña borincana a través de la radio por varias décadas.

Visite nuestra página dedicada a Arturo Silvagnoli

Víctor Lluveras Ríos

Oriundo de Fajardo. Nombrado por Ramito, Luis Morales y Joaquín Mouliert como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica.

Tenemos aquí la primera grabación de Víctor Lluveras Ríos (respaldado por Maso Rivera en cuatro), cantando un Aguinaldo Orocoveño, Cuando el Sol Declina

Oigan a Victor Lluveras Ríos cantar Jíbaro Listo

Cayito Ortiz

Natural de Caguas. Animador de la radio y productor de programas típicos en Caguas. Don Ortiz se destacó por ser un gran defensor de la décima y de la música típica puertorriqueña.

Jacinto Claudio

Durante su larga trayectoria Jacinto Claudio grabó muchos discos de música folklórica, incluyendo Rancheras y Boleros Jíbaros. En sus últimos años se dedicó, igual que don Luis Miranda, "El Pico de Oro", a interpretar temas religiosos por su conversión al cristianismo.

Gaspar Ríos

Natural de Humacao Nombrado por Luis Miranda como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica.

Manolo Mata
El Ruiseñor de Palmer

Natural del barrio Palmer de Rió Grande. Nombrado por Luis Miranda como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica. Uno de los grandes poetas de la décima y fiel escritor de décimas que cantó Chuíto el de Bayamón.

Juan Serrano
Leña Verde

Natural del barrio La Prieta del sector Cedrito de Comerío. Uno de los grandes poetas de la décima y fiel escritor de décimas de Chuíto el de Bayamón y de Ramito.

Perfecto Álvarez

Natural de Caguas. Conocido como uno de los grandes improvisadores y poeta destacado en la poesía. Nombrado por Luis Miranda como uno de los más distinguidos cantores de la música típica.

In 1930, the Cuarteto Flores (of Pedro Flores) records a song in aguinaldo truya style interpreted by Pedro Marcano, Ramón Quirós and Fallito. Even though these artists weren't-- strictly speaking--troubadors, their interpretation of traditional music was routine for popular groups of the period, especially during the Nativity season.
      The year 1932 was a historic one for our traditional music, marking the birth of the first "urban jíbaros" that we recognize today. In March of that year radio station WKAQ was established and as well, its seminal program “Compay Sico y Compay Tello” (1). The stars of the program were Manolín Martinez, Jesús Rivera Perez and Modesto Navarro. These singers also recorded two songs for the Brunswick label under the stage name, Compay Sico y Compay Tello: Un Baile Jíbaro [A Jíbaro Dance] and El Juicio [The Judgement]. We should note that the Grupo Aurora interpreted the opening and exit songs of the program.
     El Grupo Aurora was made up of the great Maestro Ladí (Ladislao Martinez), Don Felo (Felipe Goyco), Juan Coto, Claudio Ferrer, Leocadio Vizcarrondo, Toribio (Patricio Rijos), Ernestico (Ernesto Mantilla) and others. This group, which launched the careers of our first popular jíbaros-- such as Chuito el de Cayey [Chuíto from Cayey] (Jesus Ríos Robles) and Chuito el de Bayamón [Chuíto from Bayamón] (Jesús Sánchez Erazo)--was called Conjunto Industrias Nativas. It's purpose was the promotion of the native industries of the land. We are told that on that same year, Chuito el de Bayamón becomes the first jíbaro to sing on the radio, which was with the Conjunto Industrias Nativas on the island's first radio station, WKAQ. However, some opine that Chuito el de Cayey was the first jíbaro to appear on the radio. The debate on this subject continues to this day. What we know for sure is that before 1932, Chuito el de Cayey had already been contracted by the Brugal rum company to promote their brand. Besides, Chuito el de Cayey has been named as one of the true pioneers of our traditional music just by the fact that he possessed the following skills: 1) he was a brilliant improviser; 2) he wrote in the Décima style 3) he possessed a great voice.

Some of the songs that Chuito el de Cayey put on record with the Conjunto Industrias Nativas for this period was Mi Mulata [My Dark-Skinned Girl] and Cerca de Cayey [Near the town of Cayey], excerpted below .
      By 1932, a large community of Puerto Rican musicians had settled in the city of New York. Among them was Los Jardineros, los Bohemios Puertorriqueños, Canario y su Grupo, Cuarteto Flores, los Jíbaros de Julio Roqué and others.
     By 1935 we find that the name of the radio program Compay Sico y Compay Tello had become “Los Jíbaros de la Radio.” The opening theme was no longer performed by the Conjunto Industrias Nativas, but rather by the Los Jíbaros de Marcano – Davilita y José Vilar - performing on every daily show the recording of Seis Caliente [see below], which they also recorded on the Columbia label. Note that the recording of that disc takes place in New York, rather than Puerto Rico.
      By 1937 Conjunto Industrias Nativas cut Chuito el de Bayamón's voice onto acetate with songs suchas Vamos Mulata [Let's Go, Dark-Skinned Girl], Viva Borinquen [Hooray for Borinquen (the original Taíno name for the Island] y Garata Matrimonial [Quarrel Between Spouses]-- a "controversia" [clever musical sparring between a man and a woman] with Natalia (Anatalia Rivera).
      By 1939 the mainstream Grupo Marcano, among others, are interpreting jíbaro songs such Siguen Los Tiempos Cambiando [Times Keep on Changing]--a décima written by Chuito el de Cayey--on the Decca label. Chuito el de Bayamón remained on the label recording songs such as El Día de los Sorullos [Day of the Sorullos (a fried corn-meal delicacy)] and Para el Año Nuevo [For the New Year].
      Towards the end of the nineteen-thirties, Conjunto Industrias Nativas changed its name to Conjunto Típico Ladí and recorded the voice of Ramito (Flor Morales Ramos) “El Cantor de la Montaña” --for the first time-- four songs on the RCA Victor label Estrella de Oriente [Morning Star], Pueblos de Borinquen [Towns of Borinquen] Convenio de Amor [Lover's Agreement] y Favor Postrero [Last Favor].

1-José Luis Torregrosa, Historia de la Radio

Jesús Sánchez Erazo

Chuíto el de Bayamón

   Chuíto de Bayamón opens a furrow for the seeds of the Décima by becoming the "dean of the traditional singers" with the Conjunto Industrias Nativas of don Felo and the Maestro Ladí, over the airwaves of WKAQ in 1932-35.
    Chuíto de Bayamón has alleged that by virtue of having recorded popular music in 1926 with the Orquesta de Ralph Sánchez, he was the first singer heard on Puerto Rican radio, but it remains in dispute whether the first singer on Puerto Rican radio was Chuito de Bayamón or Chuito de Cayey.

Chuíto sings Si Yo Fuera Alcalde, [If I were the Mayor], backed by his Trío Cialeño. The wonderful cuatro backing is provided by the great Francisco "Panchón" Ortiz Piñeiro.

Anatalia Rivera

Natalia

    Originally from Cidra, Puerto Rico, Natalia became the "dean of country song" on Puerto Rican radio. She recorded several numbers, mostrly controversias [bouts of teasing insults between troubadours] with Chuíto el de Bayamón and with Ramito.

Natalia and Chuíto together sing Llegó Chuíto y Natalia:

Here comes Ladí, Natalia y Chuíto...so that my little town can see the whole groupa / The first group that played its first song/ On the first station that there ever was in this land/ before there was television." 

Natalia and Claudio Ferrer singing  a controversia with relish titled Entre Suegra y Yerno [Between a Mother in law and a Son in law]. You can hear the deep voice of what may be a bordonúa in the background.

Natalia:
Wake up, Celimón,
What are you thinking,
Are you going to keep sleeping,
You big lump on a log...

Claudio:
This fat old woman
Has me up to here,
With all her blabbering,
She needs a good kick...



Jesús Ríos Robles

Chuíto el de Cayey

One of the best décima improvisers of his time and perhaps of all time.
He was born in the Coabey neighborhood of Jayuya, around 1910. He lived for some time in Ponce, but in Cayey he was adopted as a favorite son. He was the one that brought fame to the Aguinaldo Cayeyano because it was the genre he often sang on the radio in his own unique manner.
   He died in New York in 1952 and his body rests in Jayuya, Puerto Rico.

 He recorded only fourteen records, included among them we find Es Que No Puedo con Ella [I just can't bear her] and Una Fiesta Campesina [A country festival].

 Listen to Chuíto de Cayey with the  conjunto Industrias Nativas en Cerca de Cayey  [Near Cayey] (1933).

Visit our page dedicated to Jesús Ríos Robles here.

Los Jíbaros de la Radio

     A popular radio program kind of like a jíbaro Amos and Andy show, was originally titled Compay Sico y Compay Tello. They were three performers: Manolín Martínez, Jesús Rivera Pérez (Mano Meco) and Modesto Navarro who made up this seminal radio program, which transmitted the music of the most brilliant performers of Puerto Rican country music on radio station WKAQ across the entire Island, beginning in 1932.

Listen to a funny repartee [in Spanish] of the three jíbaros before a judge, concluding with a mazurca:

Compay Tello:  Well, mister judge, it so happens that I was so busy watching Compay Sico, who is a glutton, to make sure he wouldn't gobble up all the food we had prepared for the invited guests.
Judge: Come, come, let's get to the nub.
Compay Tello: I'll go wherever you tell me to, mister judge. Well, that's when I felt a noise like someone getting punched in the face...

The recording Seis Caliente, with Davilita and José Vilar, was used as the theme song introducing the program for several years. In one spot the lyrics go, "...because I must end, because the record's come to its finish, and Pérez is in a big rush", referring to the announcer Jesús Rivera Pérez.

Visit the Mano Meco page [in Spanish]

ECOS DE PUERTO RICO: Texans preserving their Puerto Rican roots...with pride!

For the last two years, ECOS DE PUERTO RICO, a 12-person cuatro group has been actively and succesfully representing Puerto Rican traditional music in San Antonio and South Texas. The group is composed of four first cuatros, four second cuatros, plus a rhythm section that includes two guitars, bongos and congas, and güiro, a percussive "scratch gourd" native to Puerto Rico. Members range in age from 43 to 74. We've created a page about them here.

CAMINO LIBRE: Pedro Guzman/Kacho Montalvo
"Libre" [free] is the key word here.This recording is liberating.  In Camino Libre, two consummate master musicians--each one among the most outstanding in their field--improvise together in free form. Kacho Montalvo on guitar and Pedro Guzmán on cuatro come together to form a single, magic, intertwined instrument, executed by what seems to be a single mind. With no more accompaniment than the voice of Pavel Urquiza on one track, the two alone create within Jazz and within the Cuatro a new sound, a new texture, a new experience. 
      The astounding--almost fearless--inventiveness exhibited in each piece, like for example the jazz version of the danza Bajo la Sombra de un Pino and Variaciones sobre [variations upon] un Quinto al Aire expands this listener's vision of what is possible with only one cuatro and one guitar.

"Separated by the Sea" celebrates an encounter of Puerto Rican and Cuban décima poets and troubadours.
The ancient Décima Espinela poetic form was utilized by the jíbaro country man in Puerto Rico. Their descendants still sings it up this day to the tune of a seis. The jíbaro's Cuban counterpart, the guajiro, also sings it--but to the tune of a punto cubano or punto libre. Although the décima still survives on other islands of the Caribbean archiipelago, it is most firmly seated in the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico. This kinship is celebrated during frequent events called Encuentros Internacionales de Trovadores [International Troubadour Encounters], richly documented in this marvelously double-CD recording. It comprises performances by the most brilliant stars in the firmaments of the traditional music of both countries. The Puerto Rican contigent includes the great troubadours Roberto Silva, Isidro Fernández, Jovino González, Omar Santiago, Arturo Santiago Guzmán, Arturo Santiago Labrador y Ricardo Villanueva--expertly accompanied by Antonio Rivera and his group, la Orquesta Criolla Nacional de Puerto Rico and Edwin Colón Zayas and his group, Taller Campesino.

A double-CD recording honors the memory of the late cuatrista Efraín Vidal
The musicians, singers and artists closest to the recently-deceased cuatrista Efraín Vidal have created here an emotional farewell to their friend, teacher and companion, in the form of a beautiful double-CD recording of original compositions, most of them executed in authentic traditional fashion. In it we hear intensely emotion sentiments of loss, distilled within original décimas written by Joaquin Mouliert, Edgardo Delgado, Lourdes Cosme, Miguel Trinidad, Mariano Coto and others, revealing the profound impact that this simple, genuine and good-natured artist had over their lives. The very skilled young  cuatrista Manny Trinidad accompanies the numerous décimas of the work with great precision and refinement, each one expressed in its own, distinctive seis genre. Manny has also done a great job of establishing an enduring reminder of the great maestro in the form of a new foundation called Fundación Efraín Vidal Maldonado, where presumably the profits from the recording will go. We congratulate him for his noble effort.

"This recording of the work of Luciano Quiñones will be historic because he accomplished the same task as was as the one realized by the great, late Maestro Ladí with the music of Juan Morel Campos and of other composers of this music, passing it from one generation to another. The composer Luciano Quiñones is extremely pleased with the recording because up to now only other pianists knew about his works, and now A large majority of cuatristas will be able to access this feast of precious Puerto Rican danzas".                                 Neftalí Ortiz

Modern Danzas by Luciano Quiñones
Pure perfection, we would hasten to say, characterizes this recent collection of Danzas, titled Fiestas de la calle San Sebastian, composed by the award-winning composer-pianist Luciano Quiñones, arranged for stringed instruments by Neftalí Ortiz and performed impeccably on two cuatros, guitarr and guiro by Neftalí Ortiz, Ray Vázquez y Neftalí Ortiz, Jr. With this recording maestro Quiñones has created a time machine which faithfully brings a nineteenth century Puerto Rican musical sensibility to the present day. It's spooky...Quiñones appears to channel the sprits of the great 19th century composers Morel Campos, Mislán y Tavarez, who seem to guide Quiñones' pen over the staff paper. What a wonder!

Listen to a short fragment of the danza Amor Eterno, [eternal love] by  Luciano Quiñones, his piece a winner of the First Prize from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in 2005

You can purchase this recording here.

Listen to Modesto Nieves featuring the bordonúa in the anthemic bolero En Mi Viejo San Juan

All the instruments of the jíbaro orchestra are featured in the bolero Querube

 The Orquesta Jíbara is not just an ordinary group...
In 1849 Manuel Alonso observed the music being played in the fields of Puerto Rico and wrote: ...a complete orchestra is formed by a bordonúa, a tiple, a cuatro, a carracho and maraca. But this type of ensemble of jíbaro instrument was forgotten in time. Academics and modern historians didn't accept the premise that these instruments were actually played together as an "ancient jibaro orchestra" until the Cuatro Project found the evidence that was necessary to verify and corroborate Alonso's observation and in 1998, the Cuatro Project recreated first in New Jersey and later in Washington DC, a Orquesta Jíbara Antigua precisely in the manner that Alonso had described it 150 years previously.
     The recording by the great Puerto Rican cuatro master Modesto Nieves, titled Orquesta Jíbara: Tiple, Cuatro y Bordonúa vol. 1 y 2  together represent the first commercial recording of what the Cuatro Project named the Orquesta Jíbara Antigua. It is a master work, with Nieves playing all the instruments in the orchestra.

INTERESTING ARTICLES:

How to understand el reggaetón (not translated yet)

1904 New York Times article on music in the recent American possession of Porto Rico
 

We could say that the decimilla is a décima in every respect--except that the decimilla consists of ten lines of six syllables each, in contrast to the décima's ten lines of eight syllables. But more than that, the decimilla is reserved by Puerto Ricans to serve as the lyrics for the songs of the ancient tradition of the aguinaldo.
     An aguinaldo is a gift, specifically a gift offered during the early-January holiday season celebrating the Feast of Epiphany (in more modern times, during Christmas) and as well, an aguinaldo is the song genre which, along with the seis, is sung during that season. The occasion of the singing of seises and aguinaldos is a parranda--a Christmas serenading tradition where musicians surprise their friends and relatives with festive music during the night--not unlike the caroling tradtion in the United States.

Just like the seis, the aguinaldo has its own distinctive melodies and chords. It also treats serious, even sad themes, not only themes related to the Nativity season. Like the seis also, there are a variety of different aguinaldos, their names often, but not exclusively tied to the names of the towns that they came from.

The elder Ponce musician Mario Díaz Bauzá has identified over a dozen different aguinaldo styles. Among them:

Aguinaldo Cagueño
Aguinaldo Lorenzillo
Aguinaldo de Costa
Aguinaldo Orocoveño
Aguinaldo de Costa
Aguinaldo de Duranero
Aguinaldo de Encarnación
Aguinaldo de Promesas
Aguinaldo Isabelino
Aguinaldo Mayaguezano
Aguinaldo Quinto al Aire
Aguinaldo Jíbaro
Aguinaldo Histórico
Aguinaldo Costanero

Notas de un viejo folleto del ICPR

Nació en el barrio Sebonuco de Santurce en 1894. Desde muy temprana edad mostró inclinación a la música, interés que Cecilio, su hermano, estimulaba fabricándole guitarras con latas de sardinas y cuerdas de alambre. Alimentaba su fantasía atizando en su espíritu melancólico. Él mismo construía sus instrumentos además de aprender música por su propia cuenta. Logró destacarse como uno de los mejores intérpretes de la guitarra popular de su época. Formó parte de los conjuntos Aurora,Conjunto Típico Ladí y Septeto Puerto Rico. A través de estos grupos que Don Felo se nos revela como un excelente compositor. Sus melodías así como sus letras reflejan una depurada sensibilidad y alma de poeta. En agosto de 1945 le escribe a su gran amigo Biriquín Rivera (compositor, guitarrista y director de orquesta que perteneció un tiempo al Conjunto Típico Ladí): "entre nosotros, las palabras casi no cuentan para comprendernos como seres humanos; son las notas y los arpegios combinados de la musa universal lo que nos une y los que nos hace comprensibles a través de todas las cosas y de todos los mundos". Murió Don Felo el 22 de julio de 1954 en el Barrio Obrero, a la edad de 60 años.

Yayito Maldonado

 Yayito Maldonado se destacó en el ambiente musical boricua del Nueva York de los años 20 y 30, tocando la guitarra tanto como el cuatro. Allí formó parte del Trío Boricua, Cuarteto Machín, Quinteto La Plata, Sexteto de Pedro Flores, Manuel Jiménez (Canario) y su Grupo, y el Grupo Antilla.

Paquito López Cruz (1907-1988) Oriundo de Naranjito, comenzó a tocar de oído el cuatro, la guitarra y el güiro desde los siete años y desde los diez años tomó lecciones con su tío, quien le dio también su primer empleo como músico, tocando para la exhibición de películas mudas en el cine del pueblo. Se destacó en Nueva York como segunda guitarra en el Cuarteto Victoria--conjunto que componía también Rafael Hernández--pero luego de la gira triunfal del Cuarteto a Puerto Rico en 1934, se aparta de la escena nuyorquina a vivir en la Isla. Recibe su Doctorado en Música en Madrid, y se dedica a grabar, componer y estudiar el folclor musical puertorriqueño, donde se compromete con Ricardo Alegría--quien en 1955 establece el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña--a revivir la enseñanza formal del cuatro en la isla. Hacia dicho fin, en 1967 López Cruz publica un método para la enseñanza del cuatro puertorriqueño y en el 1972 funda el Instituto del Cuatro Puertorriqueño, junto a Tulio Kercadó, Mario Sharon, Carmelo Valencia y Luis Crespo. Con estudiantes graduados y activos forma una orquesta de cuatro y bordonúa, instrumento éste al que Paquito le dedica esfuerzos para la recuperación. 

Manuel (Maneco) Velázquez de León (1926-2008) nació en Humacao. Se enseñó a tocar cuatro cuando jóven, y se destacó con el instrumento en eventos escolares. En el 1950 se trasladó con su familia a Nueva York, donde trabajó en una fábrica mientras mantenía su interés en el cuatro y la guitarra. Allí se une a la unión de músicos, lo que le permite ganarse la vida tocando junto a Yomo Toro, Claudio Ferrer, Nieves Quintero y Ernestina Reyes, "La Calandria", entre otros. En 1970 regresa a Puerto Rico, grabando con el sello Ansonia, ganando premios y acompañando a Joaquín Mouliert, Lito Peña, Daniel Santos, Tito Lara, y muchos otros cantantes.

Resumido de notas por Santiago Maunez Vizcarrondo

Uno de los más importantes acompañantes en la historia de la música puertorriqueña, José Diáz Armengol, conocido como "Mengol" acompañó con su guitarra a los grupos y artistas más reconocidos de la historia, incluyendo a Rafael Hernández y su grupo Victoria, Manuel "Canario" Jiménez, Sexteto Pedro Flores, el Conjunto Típico Ladí, y respaldando Davilita, Johnny Rodriguez y Daniel Santos. Su carrera se proyecta a través de una larga trayectoria desde las décadas de 1920 - 1960.

Segundas guitarras: Los maestros mayores
Su larga carrera artística sirve de inspiración a los guitarristas de una nueva generación
(Aparecen en orden alfabético)

 Israel Berríos Castro (1927- ), pionero defensor de la música puertorri- queña y el Son cubano. Es un tesoro nacional en vida de nuestra isla. Estamos construyendo una página dedicada al gran artista aquí.

 
Israel Berríos en 1959

      We know that the Décima poetry of the Puerto Rican jíbaro springs from medieval Spanish roots. So the pioneers of our traditional music appeared on the scene far earlier than 1900. But from the earliest times to this day, our troubadours sang their songs with lyrics that rhymed according to the rules of that ancient poetic form -known also as the Décima Espinela because it was named after one of its most important proponents, the Spanish poet Vicente Martínez de Espinel (1551?-1624).
      Today, very little information has survived about these early jíbaro artists. Nevertheless, brief anecdotes about them survive in books such as El Gíbaro (1849) and El Aguinaldo Puertorriqueño (1843).
      Long before it was captured on the radio, the troubador tradition was preserved on recordings. The Cuatro Project has found evidence of Puerto Rican artists playing and singing décimas, aguinaldos ["gifts," a traditional poem/song genre, simpler than the décima, and often, but not always, associated with Christmas themes], seises [an ancient Puerto Rican song and dance genre] and controversias ["controversies," where two singers, most often a man and a woman, square off at each other with playful, rhymed insults], accompanied by a cuatro, bordonúa, tiple and güiro -- before 1916. (1)
      By 1914, the anthropologist J. Alden Mason traveled across the island of Puerto Rico and made around a hundred and ninety recordings of Puerto Rican traditional music. Among his selections one can find décimas, aguinaldos, aguinaldos cagüeños, bombas and guarachas. Among the artists he recorded were Gregorio Ponce de Leon, Juan Sanabria, Antonio Montero, Archangel Hidalgo, Baldones Angulo, Jose Arrocha, Jose Mayole, Jacinto Diaz, Tomás Fernández and Clotilde Calderon. 

  Fragment of a recording made in 1915 by J. Alden Mason in Puerto Rico of the aguinaldo Feliz Año Nuevo, sung by Gregorio Ponce de Leon and Juan Sanabria
     

       In 1916, the Víctor recording company visited Puerto Rico and recorded several musicians, none of whom were troubadors. Nonetheless, among these recorded songs we can find some essentially jíbaro themes.

The year 1922 saw the inauguration of one of the first radio stations in the Caribbean, WKAQ, which helped difuse our traditional music across the Island. During that period José Vilar and the Trio Borinquen could be heard and would record a large number of décimas and aguinaldos.
      In 1929, the famous group known as Los Jardineros [The Gardeners] recorded many aguinaldos and seises. This group relied on the the "Magician of the Cuatro," Heriberto Torres. The other performers listed are referred to as Gilito and Angelito. We also have the great Manuel "Canario" Jiménez' group performing décimas along with Américo Meana y José Vilar.

Listen to Los Jardineros (with the great 4-string cuatro player Heriberto Torres) in Antiguo Seis Borinqueño (1929) (fragment). Gilito y Angelito are the singers.

THE ROUND TABLE
      Among the great radio and recording pioneers of the genre we find certain distinguished troubadors and improvisors from the area of Fajardo--some whose professional apogee actually occurs during the forties and others as late as the fifties--but their long-lived history within the genre nonetheless confers unto them the title of Pioneer. For years, this group kept up the tradition of the "La Mesa Redonda," or the Round Table. According to singer Joaquin Mouliert, these masters often met in Fajardo on weekends, often around a round table. Each week one of the improvisers selected a topic (what today is know as pie forzado [forced foot]) around which those seated had to improvise décimas. The group judged the performances and each one had to improvise several verses until only two remained and then the winner was selected. The last Mesa Redonda took place in 1962 at the home of Joaquín Mouliert. Present were Luis Miranda, Pedro Rios and Pepe Maldonado, among others.

A member of the old guard of improvisers and poets. A member of the Round Table. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Mouliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.
Born during the Spanish administration of the Island, he was considered a titan of the décima, notwithstanding his meager schooling. But he would answer those who would ask him about his education, "what do the nightingales know about grammar and music?"
He also wrote two books that are classics: El Aguinaldo and Al Son de mi Tiple Doliente [To the Tune of my Tiple Doliente] and a short comedy called El Negrito Celedonio. He composed décimas and aguinaldos over a period of more than seventy years.

The following notes are quoted from the Puerto Rican Instutute of Culture musical review Resonancias, No.8, Dec. 2004:

In 1963 Ángel Pacheco Alvarado published a book of décimas: El Tiple Puertorriqueño in which he gathers together what he himself calls  "rústic espinelas". Maybe that's the reason that he defines his efforts in the composition of décimas in the following way:

The following notes are quoted from the Puerto Rican Instutute of Culture musical review Resonancias, No. 8, Dec. 2004:

But, who is the first troubador at the beginnings of the twentieth century who's name we know? It was a Caguas native named Perfecto Álvarez, who served as a tutor to other future troubadors and improvisers in that region. Let's see how the self-taught versifier sings about his homeland:

Plácido Figueroa (1909-197?)

The following commentary is quoted and translated from Resonancias, the journal of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, No.8, December 2004:

In his broadside Los Trovadores [The Troubadors] Plácido Figueroa Rodríguez reveals his flair for the singing and the composition of  décimas; on those pages he includes various elegies on other admired troubadors, such as Pacheco Alvarado and the never-forgotten Iluminado Félix, to whom he directs these verses:

 Plácido Figueroa also wrote the beautiful décima Nuestra Sangre made famous by the singer Ramito. We've dedicated an entire page to  Nuestra Sangre here.

Jesús Díaz
El Conde

Born in the town of Guayama. A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the forties and a member of the old guard of improvisers and poets. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

Pepe Meléndez El Cojo [The lame one]

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Ceiba. Named by Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs. Known as El Cojo -the lame one--due to his having lost a leg.

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Guayama. Named by Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the fifties. One of the great poets of the décima. Born in the town of Barceloneta. He was a member of the old guard of improvisers and historic poets. He was engaged to work as a troubador for the Puerto Rican government in 1929 and wrote two books containing décimas. Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Mouliert as one of the most distinguished singer of traditional Puerto Rican songs.

Gabriel Rivera Goyo

Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished among the singers of traditional music. Born Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished traditional singers. A native of the barrio Beatriz of Caguas. Respected as a décima poet by his peers, the greatest poet-improvisers of his times, for his a natural artistic style that flowed freely in every thought, in every poetic stanza of his poetry.

Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished among the singers of traditional music. Born Named by Luis Miranda as one of the most distinguished traditional singers. A native of the barrio Beatriz of Caguas. Respected as a décima poet by his peers, the greatest poet-improvisers of his times, for his a natural artistic style that flowed freely in every thought, in every poetic stanza of his poetry.

Born in the town of Fajardo. A member of the Round Table whose professional apogee occurs during the forties. A member of the old guard of improvisers and poets.
Named by Ramito, Luis Morales and Joaquín Muliert as one of the most distinguished singers of Puerto Rican traditional songs.

Francisco Roque
(1894-1992)

The following commentary is translated from Resonancias, the journal of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, No.8, December 2004:

Décima poet from the early twentieth century, whose work is collected in the booklet Desde un rincón de mi tierra [From a corner of my land]. He was a man tied to the agricultural tasks of the mountains of Naranjito, town of his birth, and is responsible for the national prestige gained by great singers of the décima who sang his compositions.