Michael Camarero ha compuesto cerca de 50 composiciones, entre ellas danzas, mazurcas, valses, pasillos, marumbas y dos estilos de seises: Seis de Naranjito y Seis Guadianés.

Michael John Camarero Cruz nace el 2 de febrero de 1958 en Los Ángeles, California. A los 17 años conoce al gran músico y cuatrista Modesto Nieves, quien a su vez lo introduce en AREYTO Ballet Folclórico Nacional de PR. Durante los años que estuvo en AREYTO, viaja a Jerusalén en Israel, Roma, España, Marruecos al norte de África y Washington DC, Tennessee, Bogotá y Medellín en Colombia. Es también en 1978 que obtiene El Primer Premio Nacional del Certamen del Cuatro en el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. En 1984 se retira de AREYTO y se convierte en el cuatrista de Andrés Jiménez, El Jíbaro. Viaja a Nueva York, Boston y Connecticut, y graba Soy Latinoamericano con Andrés.
En noviembre de 1985 forma su primer grupo típico Taller Boricua junto a Arnaldo Martínez Zayas, segundo cuatro. Ese mismo año graba junto a Lucecita Benítez, Conjunto Mapeyé, El Topo, Roy Brown y Joaquín Mouliert. Taller Boricua es la primera agrupación típica en presentarse en la prestigiosa sala del Lincoln Center Hall de Nueva York el 6 de enero de 1987. Se presentaron en el Primer Festival Internacional del Folklore Hispanoamericano celebrado en Cancún México en el verano de 1988 con los trovadores Luis Miranda y Víctor M. Reyes. En el año 1989 graban su primero y único trabajo discográfico titulado Con la Orquesta de mi Tierra con el trovador Isidro Fernández de Aguas Buenas.

Foto William Cumpiano

Hemos creado una página con Prodigio tocando distintos seises para el Proyecto del Cuatro aquí.

 Eligio "Prodigio" Claudio se encuentra entre los cuatristas más reconocidos del tiempo actual. Su asombroso dominio de la técnica del instrumento y su gran habilidad de poner muy a gusto a sus audiencias con su humor y soltura lo hacen muy solicitado en Puerto Rico tanto como en el extranjero.

  Estamos preparando una página dedicado al notable instrumentista. Hasta entonces, disfruten de esta corta muestra de la gracia de este maravilloso cuatrista, grabado en un hotel en Chicago mientras esperábamos el comienzo de un espectáculo (Juan Sotomayor lo acompaña en la guitarra):

foto Juan Sotomayor

Edwin y su hermano Bill tocan la pieza Ternura durante una bella presentación en Long Beach, CA grabado por el Proyecto del Cuatro

 El gran cuatrista orocoveño procede de una familia musical, y se luce con un cuatro sobre la tarima desde una edad temprana. Aparece cuando joven acompañado en güiro de su hermana Emma en el programa semental de televisión de Rafael Quiñones Vidal. Desde ese premier hasta el día de hoy, el relucido artista, orgullo de nuestra nación, ha viajado por los teatros a través de los Estados Unidos, Europa, Sur América y Asia, creando un repertorio mundial para su instrumento. Su estilo de tocar cuatro ha inspirado una nueva generación de destacados artistas jóvenes, quienes siguen sus pasos fielmente. Creamos una página dedicada al distinguido maestro aquí. 

 José toca primer cuatro para el apremiado grupo, Ecos de Borinquen.
Todavía por entrevistarse.

 El gran maestro Pedro Guzmán ha dedicado su distinguida carrera al descubrimiento de nuevas avenidas para su instrumento. Siguiendo los pasos del venerado innovador Nieves Quintero, proyectó el cuatro mas allá de las usuales barreras geográficas del cuatro, convirtiéndose en un orgullo nacional para el puertorriqueño. Nos contó que:"No soy folclorista per se, pero estoy enfocado hacia otra cosa, y quiero llegar el cuatro un poco mas allá de las cien por treinta y cinco de Puerto Rico. Y es difícil llevarlo con la música criolla, con la música original. Hay que modernizarla un poco. Estamos en unos tiempos electrónicos que van avanzando cada día y hay que adaptarlo a lo que está pasando en el día.
Yo duermo a veces con el cuatro en la cama [ríe]. Yo puedo hacer lo que quiera con el cuatro, y él puede hacer lo que quiera conmigo".

Visite nuestra página dedicada a Pedrito Guzman aquí

Consumado músico multi-instrumentista puertorriqueño y maestro de conservatorio, quien se ha destacado cabalmente en el ámbito tradicional, en el popular--tanto como en el académico.

Visite nuestra página dedicado al prominente instrumentista aquí

Ediberto López  Edi López

Ediberto Lopez, oriundo de Naranjito, se nombra entre nuestros más destacados ejecutantes y compositores. Comenzó a tocar la guitarra a la edad de seis años. Eddie no tuvo aprendizaje musical formal, pero fue criado en un ambiente musical debido a que sus dos hermanos son músicos también. Se enseñó oyendo música en discos y en la radio. Se le puede tildar como niño prodigio, empezando a componer piezas originales a los nueve años de edad. Esta es la misma edad en que empieza a aprender el cuatro como segundo instrumento.
    A la edad de catorce años graba junto con Antonio Cabán Vale, "El Topo", dos de sus propias composiciones, la guaracha Ají Caballero (tocada aquí por Alvin Medina) y la samba Teresa. Esta grabación le abre la puerta a otras grabaciones y a juntarse con el Ballet Folklórico Areyto, con el cual viaja a Estados Unidos Inglaterra, España, y Italia.
  Forma parte del maravilloso Grupo Mapeyé por diez años. Graba con Lucesita Benítez, el Conjunto Ladí, Taller Boricua, Andrés Jiménez y Nieves Quintero. En 1980 se gradúa del programa de televisión de Rafael Quiñones Vidal. Se presentó en Nueva York en el Radio City Music Hall.

   Las composiciones de Edi inspiran a otros superestrellas del cuatro, como la siguiente pieza
...un Fox de Edi ejecutado durante una fiesta por el maravilloso cuatrista Ramón Vazquez.

Neftalí Ortiz

Uno de los más importantes cuatristas de nuestra época, tanto como en su defensa de la música tradicional pura como en la conquista de nuevos campos para el instrumento. Funda con Modesto Nieves en 1978 el seminal grupo Mapeyé.

Estamos preparando una página dedicado exclusivamente al asombroso Neftalí Ortíz aquí.

Hasta entonces, disfruten la pieza Obsesión, escrita por Pedro Flores que ofreció Neftalí para nuetros micrófonos del Proyecto del Cuatro, acompañado por el guitarrista-folklorista Ramón Vázquez

 Arnaldo Martínez

Nuestro admirado amigo, el consumado cuatrista Arnaldo Martínez, actualmente toca segundo cuatro en el grupo Ecos de Borinquen, grupo que fué nominado para un premio Emmy. Estamos transcribiendo una larga entrevista con Arnaldo que hicimos, la cual montaremos aquí en un futuro cercano.

Modesto Nieves

Estamos preparando una página dedicada al gran Modesto Nieves aquí.

Ángel Luis Pérez Rodríguez nació en el barrio Palomas de Comerío, Puerto Rico en el 1946. Es un cuatrista con mucho camino andado. De niño escuchaba a su padre Ángel Pérez rasgar la guitarra.Aprendió "de oído", sin métodos y sin lecciones. Pasando el tiempo se encuentra con un grupo de trovadores que venían con fuerza levantando la trova jíbara. El grupo estaba compuesto por los trovadores Miguel Santiago y Wiso Morales, Eduardo Negrón era el cuatrista y Güiso Negrón, guitarrista en un programa radial. Posteriormente, se posesiona del cuatro y se hace un gran cuatrista. Funda el Grupo Típico Boricua y se convierte en uno de los preferidos por los trovadores para acompañarse en sus improvisaciones e interpretaciones. Viaja a festivales en Boston y Springfield en Massachussetts, Tampa, Florida , Méjico (Guadalajara, San Louis de Potosí y Guanajuato ) Islas Canarias en España (1992), New Jersey, Hartford, Connecticut, Caracas, Venezuela y a Cuba como representante de la música y la cultura puertorriqueña. Güiso Pérez fue integrante del Grupo Ecos de Borinquen de Miguel Santiago, en donde ejecutaba en ocasiones el cuatro y la guitarra.

José Antonio Rivera  Tony Mapeyé

Tony nació en 1948 en el Barrio Cuchillas de Morovis. Gradóa con Bachillerato en Pedagogía de la UPR con concentración en Artes Plásticas. Adiestrado formalmente en las artes, ha trabajado como maestro, ilustrador, y fotógrafo, como también como promotor cultural para el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Fundó en 1978 el Grupo Mapeyé, grupo que promueve en gran parte una gran revitalización de la música tradicional en Puerto Rico y que se mantiene activo hasta el día de hoy. Tony también es compositor, artista gráfico, guitarrista, coleccionista, notable propulsor del cuatro puertorriqueño y representante cultural de nuestra música tradicional en México, Venezuela, Argentina, Islas Canarias, Cuba, y al frente de comunidades puertorriqueñas en los Estado Unidos.

Cogimos prestado esta biografía de la carátula del reciente CD, Amigos del Tiple, producida por el distinguido cuatrista Edwin Colón Zayas.

Sobresaliente cuatrista Yaucano muy activo en la escena musical Latina de Nueva York. Ha viajado por el mundo tocando su instrumento, desempeñándose con Johnny Pacheco, los Fania All-Stars, Henry Fiol, Héctor Casanova, Pete El Conde y últimamente con la orquesta de Dave Santiago.

Maravilloso cuatrista residente del estado de Ohio.
Pedimos al público que nos aporten datos biográficos de este distinguido artista.

Ramón Vázquez es un verdadero héroe de la cultura puertorrique-ña. Su conocimiento y compromiso a la música tradicional puertorriqueña no tiene rival. Maestro dominante del instrumento nacional, tanto como la guitarra, Ramón impresiona a todos que se le acercan por su gentileza y sensatez. Un verdadero tesoro nacional!

Hemos dedicado una página a Ramón Vázquez aquí.

Oigan a Ramón Vázquez, acompañado de Polo Ocasio, mostrándonos un Seis Cante Hondo de Vieques

"My name is Manuel Quintero Maldonado, but I'm known as Nieves Quintero, which are my father's two last names."
     "I gave the cuatro a new flavor. And I always told myself that I was going to play the cuatro differently from the way Ladi and my cousin Archilla, played it. That's what was on my mind...yes, it's true, I thought, I'm going to create a style with a new sound."

Our Nieves Quintero page can be found here

Juan Montalvo

Arturo Avilés   "Arturito"

To be sure, Arturito Avilés has been one of the most outstanding phenomenons of the Puerto Rican cuatros--of both yesterday and today. With his wonderful intros and innovative style, his deep knowledge of the music and the delicious way that he colored the seis with his cuatro, he inspired--and continues to inspire--musicians of following generations.

Our page dedicated to Arturito Avilés can be found here.

Iluminado Dávila

"Well, if you had to play at a rosary rite and some verses were sung...that was a tradition we followe. There was no equipment, nothing, no electrical sound equipment. Nowadays, just try to play without any equipment--with all the racket! In times past the musicians were respected, you'd start to play and people would stop talking. But nowadays, you go to play and its like playing in a cock fight. Nobody pays attention to the fact that music is for listening..."

Our Iluminado Dávila page can be found here

José Rodríguez "Pepe"

Noted to be among the best of the older cuatristas, Pepe Rodríguez was born in Morovis, Puerto Rico in 1921. Known among his peers to be a great player as well as an inspired composer of music for the cuatro in the traditional vein. Although all his masterpieces are unpublished, they are often heard in recordings played by the great modern players of the cuatro. Sadly, he has yet to receive his well-deserved recognition as one of the great artists of Puerto Rican culture. Our opinion is that his compositions are at a level with those of thel Maestro Ladi, with whom he played for years.

Our Pepe Rodríguez page can be found here.

Cristóbal Santiago

Cristóbal Santiago is not only one of the great cuatro instrumentalists but also he is the author of one of the best and most comprehensive methods for learning the cuatro, the Método Audiovisual Práctico para el Cuatro [Practical Audiovisual Method for the Cuatro], published by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture over several decades. But perhaps he is known for managing a shop, school and recording studio in Carolina, PR, called La Casa del Cuatro Puertorriqueño for over forty years, which over the years has become a cultural institution that remains open to the public to this day. Santiago was repeatedly honored by the Institute for his mastery, which they featured in films, books and pamphlets. Particularly notewhorthy was the Institute commission for the creation of a Cuatro Family, that is the creation of a series of cuatros of different sizes: soprano, tenor, alto and bass, each performing the different roles of the instruments of the string section of a symphony orchestra.

Our Cristóbal Santiago page can be found here.

Emilio "Millito" Cruz

Among the most famous and most versatile of the Puerto Rican cuatristas. We're preparing a page dedicated to this great master. In the meanwhile, enjoy these impromptu samples that Millito played for us solo, during our interviews with him:

 Millito offers us his arrangement of the Adagio for Strings by Albinioni

 Millito plays the melody part of the danza Impromptu by Morel Campos

 We asked Millto to play "something modern for us.

 Juan González

Juan González was one of the several players that played with and were mentored by the great Ladislao Martínez. He also played with the late Neri Orta and Ray Vázquez. We are looking for more information on this noted player.

 Gaspar Casiano

Music in "Porto Rico"
A 1904 article from the New York Times recounting anecdotes from the daily musical life in the new US colony of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican Wooden Saints

The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project, along with cultural researcher David Morales and other prominent scholars and collectors in the realm of popular iconic imagery, have created a beautiful resource around the artisanal, cultural and religious traditions that surround the precious and ancient Puerto Rican craft of saint carving.

Don't miss this marvelous web page that displays and teaches the craft and religious significance of this native Puerto Rican folk craft.

Puerto Rican Studies Association

The Puerto Rican Studies Association is a non-profit professional organization that has as its fundamental objective the promotion and integration of the interdisciplinary research, praxis, and community empowerment of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, the United States, and elsewhere.

Out friends at the PRSA carry out conferences in Puerto Rico and the United States on subjects related to Puerto Rican culture, politics and society.

 
Juan Sánchez, RICAN/STRUCTIONS: A MULTI-LAYERED LEGACY

Carmelo Martel Luciano (1907-1990?)
Originally from the Tetuán neighborhood of Utuado, master Carmelo Martell Luciano was considered by those in the know as one of the most talented and creative of the Island's folk builders. He was famed for his unconventional instruments--instruments which nonetheless were masterpieces of folk art--among them the "rooster cuatro," the "fish cuatro" and the "map of Puerto Rico cuatro: (at left), which was considered his crowning masterpiece. On it are displayed, within the maps of the Island's seven districts, some of the radio towers of the time, the Universtiy of Puerto Rico, the Caribe Hilton hotel, the Capitol building, the Guánica sugar cane refinery, the famed hot-spring Baths at Coamo and the Plaza of Utuado.
      At the age of nine he already played the cuatro and with it enlivened his grade-school events, and by the age of 12 he was fixing broken cuatros, what eventually led him to a life of making his own cuatros. Martell also stood out as a composer: among his composition was the danzas Ondas del Viví and thel vals Carmencito
     He was named as a “Living treasure” by Washington's Smithsonian Institution and a winner of the Competition of Musical Instrument makers of the Institute of Puerto Rican Cultures Popular Arts Program for the years  1962, 1966 and 1970. In 1978 recieved the coveted Agüeybaná de Oro award and from 1981 to 1982 was elected as Master Artisan by the Economic Development Administrations Folk-Crafts Office.
    Besides being a builder, Martell also was a fine composer. Among his compositions are the Danza, “Ondas del Viví " and the vals “Carmencito.”

Summarized from http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/myp/coms/cmartell_06.htm
Visit our Carmelo Martell page and see his magic cuatros!

León (don Leoncito) Ortiz (c.1902-c.1982)
Corozal, PR
The master cabinet- and instrument maker was repeatedly praised by senior makers such as Jaime Alicea, Juan Reyes, Julio Negrón ("he was a real artisan") and Antonio Rodríguez Navarro. He was recognized during the fifties by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture during their groundbreaking effort to inventory the Island's native crafts and craftspeople. In charge of the inventory was Walter Murray Chiesa who said Ortiz was "venerated by all, particularly when it came to marquetry, and he used wood from the old houses of Corozal...he could place frets like no other maker." Murray Chiesa recalled that he also turned wooden tops on a lathe, which he then gave out as gifts to the children of his town. A street in Corozal is named after him.

Efraín Ronda (1898-2003)
San Germán/Nueva York

View our page dedicated to the notable artisan here.

Roque Navarro (1913-2002)
Adjuntas

 View our page dedicated to the notable artisan here.

Juan Reyes Torres (1932-2005)
Hato Rey

View our page dedicated to the notable artisan here.

Eugenio (Heño) Méndez
(1929-2003)
Las Piedras, Puerto Rico
Widely considered as the greatest master folk artisan of his times. View our page dedicated to the notable artisan here.

Tito Báez
(1935-2004)
Yauco, Puerto Rico/ Brooklyn, New York
Distinguished cuatro, requinto and guitar maker established in Brooklyn, New York City for decades. Originally from Yauco, Puerto Rico--he was as well a renown guitar accompanist ("segunda guitarra") who played with the Sexteto Criollo Puertorriqueño next to Israel Berrios, Neri Orta and Nieves Quintero, among others. don Tito was a long-time consultant and collaborator for our Cuatro Project.

Pellin Medina (1880?-1950?)
Santurce
Renown instrument maker from the Barrio Trastalleres of Santurce. Noted by Joaquín Rivera, jr., as the artisan who rebuilt his four-string ancient cuatro into an eight-string instrument; also noted by the great cuatristas Sarrail Archilla; Yomo Toro and others. He holds the distinction to having made the first nine-string Puerto Rican tres during the early 1930s. His father was a Spaniard who made violins and cellos.

Egido(?) Medina (?-?)
Santurce
Pellino Medina's son, who inherited his tools and business. He made a tres for the famed tres player Mario Hernández.

Rosendo Acosta
Brooklyn, Nueva York

Rosario (Sayo) Otero
Vega Alta
Builder who made the great Ladislao Martínez' first cuatro in 1910, who, he claimed, was the first to make it with the modern shape. We believe it may have been Miguel Hernandez of Arecibo, however.

Juan Olivera (1906-1985)
Yauco
Maker of the eight string cuatros of Heriberto Torres and Norberto Cales

Miguel Hernández (1890-?)
Arecibo
Cuatro-maker that built one of the first violin-shaped modern cuatros shown in the hands of the great crossover cuatrista Joaquín Rivera "El Zurdo de Isabela" circa 1916.

Candelario (don Cando) Vásquez (1899-?)
Juncos

Secundino (don Gundín) Merced (1904-?)
Renown musician, composer and instrument maker from Aguas Buenas. Known for his distinctive bordonúas.

Martín Marrero (?-?)
Río Piedras

William del Pilar (1921-?)
Brooklyn, Nueva York
Widely known among the Boricua musicians in New York City for decades. Originally from Quebradillas, his shop was located for over 50 years at 396, and later 220 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. His guitars and cuatros were in demand by some of the most celebrated artists of the great city. One of his customers was the venerated guitarist Andrés Segovia. His son, William, keeps his father's shop active in Brooklyn today.

Carlos Barquero
Skilled Puerto Rican instrument maker working in New York City during the 1950s. One of his cuatros was owned by the great cuatrista/ composer Ladislao Martínez.

Miguel Acevedo Flores
World-class Puerto Rican guitar, violin and cuatromaker, lecturer and teacher, living and working in Trujillo Alto. We hope to interview him soon.
 

Jaime Alicea
Vega Baja

Rafael Avilés Vázquez

Rafael Avilés is a widely-admired master builder in Carolina, Puerto Rico, known for his world-class instrument making technique. He was an instructor of cuarto-making at the University of Puerto Rico and then opened his own school of musical instrument making. He is renown for his outstanding mosaic marquetry work and his innovative instrument designs.

We have prepared a page expressly for the master builder Rafael Avilés Vázquez here (not translated yet, sorry)

Freddy Burgos
An excellent builder from Caguas. His cuatros are played by distinguished cuatristas such as Pedro Guzmán and Manny Trinidad.

Aurelio Cruz Pagán
Prize-winning builder from Morovis
 

José Cuevas
Toa Alta

Manuel Henriquez Zapata
Experienced instrument artesan residing in the Cotuí neighborhood of San Germán, Puerto Rico, who acquired his skills in New York during the 1950s. He keeps up his artesanal interests up in his San Germán neighborhood to this day. Our correspondent in San Antonio, Texas, Felipe Olivera, has let us publish his interview with the seventy-year-old maker, which we offer here.

Diómedes "Yomi" Matos
We could describe “Yomi” Matos as a grand master of Puerto Rican folk string instrument craft. He is without doubt unsurpassed among mainland US builders of Puerto Rican instruments. Born in 1940, Matos was surrounded by instrument makers where he grew up in the Puerto Rican village of Camuy. By the age of 12 he had built his first cuatro and from that time has worked to perfect the construction of a wide-variety of traditional stringed instruments, including cuatros, requintos, classic guitars and the Puerto Rican tres. Matos learned his art by observing master builders such as Roque Navarro and relying on the time tested technique of trial and error. Now retired from his day-job as a factory and home construction worker, his cuatros are considered among the best in the world, sought after by the best Puerto Rican musicians, among which is the renown Yomo Toro, who he used to back up on the guitar and second cuatro during stage performances in New York City.

In 2006 Yomi was awarded the title of National Heritage Master by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.and a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment of the Arts

Biographical notes from the National Endowment for the Arts

Graciano Montesinos
Builder from Corozal, who has built instruments used by famed cuatrista Edwin Colón Zayas
 

Miguel Méndez
(1937-  )

Originally from Aibonito, Puerto Rico, don Miguel is one of the most celebrated builders of cuatros and other stringed instruments in Puerto Rico. He and his also-famed older brother, the late Eugenio Méndez, learned the art of instrument construction virtually by themselves. He presently lives in Parque Ecuestre, Carolina, Puerto Rico. His shop is located on the upper floors of his home. He takes great care in achieving the best pitch accuracy for his instruments He makes guitars, cuatros, treses, tiples, requintos, mandolins, bordonúas, bandurrias and other Latin American instruments of high quality. We've prepared a page that featured the great artisan here.

Notes by Efráin González

Máximo and Elvin Pérez
Father and son team of builders in Peñuelas
 

Ángel Luis Rivera, "Wimbo"
Morovis
Distinguished builder of cuatros, among the best in Puerto Rico. His cuatros are used by Modesto Nieves, Tony Mapeyé, Ramón Vázquez and others of their stature.

Manuel Rodriguez Feneque,
Rincón
World-class Puerto Rican luthier, maker of classic guitars, requintos and cuatros. Considered to be one of the best builders in Puerto Rico. He has built several instruments by the famed cuatrista Edwin Colón Zayas.

Salustiano Rodriguez
Barrio El Rabanal, Cidra
First-prize winner of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture's cuatro-making competition

Cristóbal Santiago
Consummate master maker, player and teacher of the Puerto Rican cuatro, still working since the 1960s at his Casa del Cuatro Puertorriqueño in Carolina PR. We've dedicated a page to don Cristóbal here.
 

Jorge Santiago Mendoza
(b. 1930, originally from Arecibo)
Master maker of cuatros, guitars and requintos. He lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York City, from  1951 until 1974. Reputed to be the first maker to build and wholesaleing cuatros using mass-production techniques.

Natividad Tirado
Master builder of guitars, cuatros, treses and baby-basses, currently residing in Delaware. We've created a page dedicated to this master builder (not translated yet) here...

Vicente Valentín Rivera
Vega Baja

Miguel Ángel Vázquez ("Guilín")
Manatí (n. 1928)

Expert and highly-regarded Puerto Rican instrument maker. Few facts about his life and career have emerged due to his reserved and taciturn personality. He established his reputation among professional musicians in New York City. He returned to Manatí, PR in the early 1990s, where he became well-known for his electric stand-up basses. He moved to Orlando in 1995. He presently resides in a rest home in Orlando under the care of his wife Victoria.

 Yomo Toro
(1933-2012)

Yomo during an interview for our feature-length video documentary NUESTRO CUATRO Vol. 2.

June 2012 was a tragic month for Puerto Rican musical culture.

Shortly after having to report the passing of the great cuatrista Neri Orta (see immediatly below), sad news reached us that Yomo passed away on June 30, 2012 after losing his battle against cancer, kidney failure and high blood pressure. Yomo was the most highly recognized and beloved cuatrista of the present day, equalled as Puerto Rico's most revered cuatro icon perhaps only by the late Maso Rivera. He is also recognized as the one who brought the cuatro into Salsa.

During the last two decades, Yomo was a great friend of our Cuatro Project, giving his time freely to us, sharing his anecdotes and time for interviews and questions.

You can find Yomo Toro's interviews with the Cuatro Project, along with photographs from his personal collection here.

Neri Orta
(1920-2012)

Neri plays a vals composed by Ladi during the filming in 2001 of the Cuatro Project video documentary Nuestro Cuatro Vol. 1 

It is with great sadness that we must announce that on the 3rd of June of 2012 this great maestro of the cuatro retired forever to the celestial pantheon of Puerto Rican culture. We are preparing a page dedicated to the great musician with eulogies by his musical companions.

 Listen to the great maestro Neri, who was, unlike most of the great players. an expert singer besides. Neri plays and sings the Seis Jíbaro Un Baile Campesino, backed by the legendary Conjunto Típico Ladi. The décima he sings tells about a dance party in Manatí, where he brought his girl and while they were dancing a "mazurquita" a free-for-all breaks out and he ends up outside in the bushes.

The illustrious cuatrista
Nicanor Zayas dies

                                                                                                     foto por Juan Sotomayor

 We've been informed that the distinguished elder cuatrista Nicanor Zayas Berrios passed away just at the New Year of 2009. Even though Zayas never recorded commercially, he is considered one of the most respected expert cuatrista of our times. Zayas was one of the first cuatristas that took the cuatro out of the jíbaro music sphere, opening its repertory to world and pop music of his day. His musical tastes were broad and all-encompassing: it included South American, North American and Mexican music--even movie tunes.
     Zayas, who gave several interviews to the Cuatro Project and participated in several of its live events, appears en both Cuatro Project video documentaries. It was our great privilege to have known him and to document his musical career. We received a treasury of the distinguished maestro's home recordings from the cuatrista Ray Vazquez, who was a longtime loyal friend of the great master. We are putting together a webpage dedicated to the maestro that will feature the stories he told us during our interviews. Immediately below we've selected several sample of the music of Nicanor Zayas in our collection, recorded informally when the maestro was at the height of his musical powers:

El Cuatro del Cuarteto by Heriberto Torres	A Guaracha: Mi Prieta by Felipe Rosario Goyco
A Danza:Who can help us identify it?	The Cuban danzón Salón Mexico

While touring across Latin America in 1934 the great Cuban Tres player Isaac Oviedo brought his Tres to Puerto Rico, and showed "Piliche," the guitarist of the group Trío Lirico, the rudiments of how to play it. After Oviedo returned to Cuba, Piliche described the Tres he saw to the instrument maker Medina of Santurce and asked him to make him one. That is how, we believe, the tradition of the Puerto Rican Tres began. To learn more about this fascinating tradition, visit our page, The Cuban-Puerto Rican Tres

The Taíno jabao o babao
Interest has recently surged in a supposed Puerto Rican stringed instrument, one made by the Island's indigenous Taíno population. The only thing to have apparently survived is it's name, "jabao taíno". We have inquired at some length about it during our research, but the search has not borne much fruit. Some musicologists say the instrument is only a legend, because no traces of the instrument survive. Read an article about the search for the Jabao Taíno here. 

Above we see the replica of a "true" bordonúa, commissioned by the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project--a luthier's impression of what it may have looked and sounded like--based on the accounts of 19th century observers and iconographers. It was said to have 6 single strings, appeared like an elongated guitar and had a solemn, low-pitched voice [voz grave]. This matches the meaning of the root of the word bordonúa, (bordón) which means "a large bell or thick, low-pitched string."                                                                                         Photo by William Cumpiano

The only contemporary illustration that exists of the 19th century bordonúa shows one hidden in a 1894 painting by the great Puerto Rican oil painter Francisco Oller called "El Velorio"

Francisco Oller’s 1893 painting, El Velorio, may be the most recent document of a nineteenth century bordonúa to be had, if it is true (as the musical historian Pedro Malavet Vega concludes) that the instrument seen at the left of the cuatro player in the painting is indeed a bordonúa.[i] What can be seen in the painting of the instrument in question is the upper part of its sound box, a short neck with six frets and a nut. On its headpiece we can see two string pegs on one side, with a third covered by the players shirt; and three pegs on the other. So it can be deduced that as such, this 1893 bordonúa was made for six single strings, precisely as Del Valle Atiles described it in his 1887 writings. The neck of this instrument coincides with the description that the nonagenarian Efraín Ronda (1899-1994) gave us in 1992: “it had a short little neck. Not more than six inches long.”[ii]

So the written record confirms that in the nineteenth century, the bordonúa was a large guitar with six single strings. The only twentieth-century testimony we have about the nineteenth century bordonúa came from ethnomusicologist Emmanuel Dufrasne, who told us that in the southern city of Ponce, his relatives made six-string bordonúas that fit the description of “guitars of large dimensions,” that is to say, guitars that were larger than common guitars:

Yes, the bordonúa was also made of a single piece of wood, for that is the way that my relatives described it. The González’ of Ponce described the bordonúa and made the bordonúa from a single piece of wood also. They would carve the bordonúa’s shape—which was a very large guitar, larger than the usual one—they would hollow it out and put six single courses on it, that is, 6 single strings, just like the current guitar.[iii]

The scarcity of available data does not allow us to specify how this bordonúa was played. Notwithstanding, some information exists that permits us to make some deductions. In his commentary on the “jíbaro waltz” Fernando Callejo reveals that the old bordonúa was used as an instrument that provided the accompaniment.

The jíbaro waltz has a form different from that of the common waltz. The melodic phrase is short and has few variants; and the harmonic accompaniment is exclusively based on dominant and subdominant tonic chords, called natural chords. Frequently the accompanying bass note, on the first beat of each measure was omitted and was substituted by a knock with the hand on the sound box of the bordonúa.[iv]

We can infer from this that the bordonúa ordinarily provided the “accompanying bass notes,” but in this instance instead of plucking the low note on the waltz’s first beat, the bordonúa “frequently” produced that familiar note with knock on its sound box.

________________________________________________________

[i] Malavet Vega, Pedro. 1992. Historia de la canción popular en Puerto Rico (1493-1898). [History of the Popular Song in Puerto Rico],
Ponce, Puerto Rico: P. Malavet Vega.

[ii] Ronda, Efraín. 1992. Interview recorded in1992 with John Sotomayor. San Juan.

[iii] Interview with professor Emanuel Dufrasne at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras PR, in 1998

[iv]Callejo Ferrer, Fernando. 1915. Música y músicos portorriqueños [Porto (sic) Rican Music and Musicians]. San Juan. Cantero, Fndez. & Co. p. 47. Reprinted with the corrected title Música y músicos puertorriqueños. 1971. Ed. Amaury Veray. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Editorial Coquí

______________________________________________________________

At the end of the 16th century Cervantes wrote that during his age the Spanish countryside teemed with guitars "of every possible size." One of them was a large guitar, call bajo de la uña or "thumbnail bass." 150 years later a guitar appears in Spain that was 7 inches deep and 4 feet long, described as "a deep voiced guitar." We believe these may have been the original instrument that inspired the creation of the large native guitars that appeared in numerous Spanish colonies of our Hemisphere during the following centuries. Many of these are still actively in use today, instruments such as the Argentinian, Chilean and Mexican guitarrones.
    The earliest reference we have found that establishes the existance of a large native guitar-like instrument appears in the book, El Gíbaro, written by Manuel Alonso and published in 1849. Alonso describes the bordonúa as a "guitar of large dimensions, made roughly, usually without any tools other than a knife or a small machete," which played the "deep voice" of the jíbaro string ensemble. In 1887, another observer, the chronicler Francisco del Valle Atiles noted that it had six thick strings.
     It's important not to mistake an instrument "with a deep voice" for a "bass" instrument. The bordonúa was never a "bass." That is it never was made large enough to produce the orchestral bass range, but rather, as it was described, it was a guitar somewhat larger than the usual one--with a playing range that was low relative to the range of the cuatro and the tiple when it was played. For example, the bombardino (a small tuba) played a familiar solo part in high-society dance orchestras of the 19th century. In the countryside, however, the lowly jíbaros loved to play the same dance music on their humble stringed instruments. 19th century chroniclers note that they formed string ensembles (which the Cuatro Project has called "the old jíbaro orchestra") made up of a bordonúa playing the bombardino part, the cuatro playing melody,  the tiple playing the chordal accompaniment and the güiro scratch gourd playing  rhythym.  That is why it was sometimes called "the jibaro's guitar"--because it was shaped like a guitar and it played a lower range in accompaniment with the cuatro. Indeed, early in the twentieth century it largely disappeared from the Island musical scene, along with the tiple, the two being replaced in string ensembles by the Spanish guitar.

EVIDENCE OF THE 19th BORDONÚA

The earliest record in existence regarding the three autochthonous Puerto Rican instruments that still survive in our times is found in Mis Memorias [My Memories] by Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (1826-1882). We can infer from the context that Tapia is referring to instruments he saw around 1835:

… singing songs to the sound of an orchestra of rustic or rural instruments as tiples, bordonúas, cuatros, güiros, maracas.

Another relevant document was written in 1849. Written within several years of Tapia´s narrative, it is a narrative of country customs by Manuel Alonso titled, El Gíbaro. Alonso describes the bordonúa as “a guitar of large dimensions.” Soon after, in 1851, the newspaper El Ponceño mentions the composition of a salon-music danza titled “La Bordonúa.” The next relevant document comes from the newspaperman Ramón Marín, who witnessed a troubadour contest on December 11, 1875 and described the contrasting sounds of the instruments:

…of the high-tuned tiple, the sonorous cuatro, the deep bordonúa and the cheerful güiro.

The following year we meet up with Tapia again in his novel, Cofresí (1876):

…all to the sounds of the tiple that by now was strumming and plucking up in the heights just as the bordonúa accompanied it down in the depths…

In 1887 in a prize-winning essay on the “intellectual and moral” condition of the Puerto Rican rural peasants, sponsored by the Puerto Rican Athenaeum, Dr. Francisco del Valle Atiles described the bordonúa as having six strings. The naturalist author Manuel Zeno Gandía, writing in his 1894 novel, La Charca, confirmed Atiles’ observations with a mention of a "large guitar"--presumably a bordonúa--included in an array of native instruments:

There were three instruments, a large guitar, the cuatro, a smaller tiple and a güiro.

Fernando Callejo Ferrer (1862-1926), in his description of the music and the musicians of his times, tells us of the “coquettish bordonúa” and commented on a certain “jíbaro Calderín” from Caguas who “concertized on the tiple and bordonúa” during the middle of the nineteenth century.

Prof. Orlando Laureano is a distinguished tiplista who has elevated the small instrument from its rustic origins to a high level within modern music. The photograph show a tiple made by Aurelio Cruz Pagán of Morovis

The tiple is the most ancient member of the family of Puerto Rican native stringed instruments. Tiples were used predominantly in the Island's most isolated communities, usually to accompany sacred songs. It is derived from the tiny Spanish guitarrillos of the the 16th century and of the similarly-derived timples of the Canary Islands, brought to the Island during early colonial times. During the centuries different tiples have evolved, some with three, four and five strings, tuned in numerous ways and configurations according to the custom of each region. During the end of the 19th century jíbaros combined the tiple with a cuatro and a bordonúa in an ensemble called orquesta jíbara antigua to play their own adaptations of European salon music, such as the waltz, the minuet, the mazurka, that they overheard emanating from fancy salons of the day. The tiple would have completely disappeared during the second half of the twentieth century had it not been for the efforts of the Institute of Puerto Rican culture and concerned players and researchers such as Alexis Morales Cales, José Reyes Zamora, Vicente Valentín, Juan "Kacho" Montalvo, Orlando Laureano and the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project, among others who have vigorously strived to rescue the instrument from oblivion.

What does a Puerto Rican tiple sound like?

Sacred music played on a tiple and guitar, recorded by Juan "Kacho" Montalvo for his CD, "Adoradores del Fuego"

Maso Rivera plays a tiple on the guaracha "Llevame Contigo." The great Ernestina Reyes, "La Calandria" sings.

The Cuatro Project recently came upon a tiple requinto belonging to the family of the late tiplista  Celestino Santiago (Don Lute) of Coamo--its original owner--probably made between 1910 and 1925. He played single-note melodies on it with a pick. From the notches in the nut and the number of pegs, the tiple appeared to be disposed for three double or single courses. The approximate measurements are:

Lower bout, 7’’

Upper bout, 4.75’’

Waist,  3’

Soundbox Depth, 2"

Soundbox length, 16’’

The distinguished master builder Jaime Alicea of Vega baja
Photo by Juan Sotomayor

The popular account that seeks to explain the Puerto Rican cuatro's evolution goes something like this: the cuatro first appeared  as a rustic four-stringed instrument--hence it's name-- and as the centuries passed, Puerto Ricans progressively added more strings to it, culminating ultimately in the modern ten-stringed instrument. The explanation appears to have a neat logic to it, but we have discovered that this is a myth.

Our research during the last decade has led us to a different conclusion: that it is more precise to summarize the cuatro's history as the evolution of two distinctive, unique instruments which coexisted during the first half of the last century, each with its own form tradition and native geography. We could name these two instrument traditions the early cuatro and the modern cuatro. This new assesment of the cuatro's history is based on findings indicating that within each tradition, the two cuatros differed dramatically in the number of their

strings, their tuning, their size, their shape, their musical function, their musical and geographic range and their ancestry. The differences are such that it is difficult to explain how the two instruments came to share the same name for so long, but folk memory on the Island has fused two traditions into an apparently logical explanation.

It is this confusion that gives rise to the frequently-asked question: "How come it's called a cuatro if it has ten strings?" As we shall see, the name "cuatro" originally described a four-string Puerto Rican instrument born perhaps three hundred years ago which gradually disapperead around the middle of the 20th century. Its name, however, was  transferred in popular usage onto a new ten-stringed instrument, developed in the late 19th century in northern towns and cities of the Island. The new instrument, carrying the old name, passed into the 20th century, and largely due to the skill of a very famous cuatro player, Ladislao Martínez (Maestro Ladí) and his ubiquitous presence over early Puerto Rican radio, became our cherished modern cuatro--the Island's "national instrument."  Here are the details of our findings:

Read about other interesting cuatro variants

The ancient tradition:
The four-string Cuatro
 

The great four-and-eight string cuatrista Tuto Feliciano as a child playing his first "cuatro antiguo" According to Feliciano, who backed the famed singer Ramito, the instrument was still being played in 1950 by himself and others exclusively around the Yauco region He complained of its musical and technical limitations and admired the versatility of the modern ten-string form, although he didn't cross over to the ten-string form until Ramito himself demanded it of him.
                           Photo from the personal collection of Tuto Feliciano

The early tradition of the cuatro begins with the four-single-string cuatro, the oldest form of the instrument. The instrument's four strings--usually made of dried strips of small-animal guts (or strips of rawhide) were usually tuned,

A  E  a  d

from low to high, separated by intervals of 5-4-4. The earliest way to play the instrument was to only fret the top three strings, E a d, relegating the fourth, the lowest pitch string, as a "pedal," that is, constantly playing in the background unchanged in pitch, like a drone. Its was a modal technique that dated to the 13th century. It is believed that the cuatro can be traced back in this configuration to the earliest days of the Spanish colonial times.

This is an early cuatro that was recreated by the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project by Vicente Valentín, made as a copy of a 19th century relic.  Today this form, which hails back to the early days of the formation of the jíbaro people, is largely unknown and forgotten. It was tuned and strung in ways that were similar to the plucked instruments of 16th century Spain.

Over the centuries rustic cuatros tuned this way with a keyhole shape were usually seen in the towns of the Island, brightening up both religious ceremonies and secular events. The instrument most often heard in the hills and remote outskirts was the tiny, simple tiple. In time, the cuatro's presence spread to all corners of the Island.

  The four-string cuatro--its strings made of gut--often played the part of the bombardin (a small German tuba--also called Euphonium--which regularly soloed portions of the Danza in interludes called the bombardino) in big-city Puerto Rican Salon orchestras of the 19th century, and at the same time was played by jibaros in the Island's most isolated communities.  Above we see the cuatrista of the Salon orchestra directed by the composer Jose Ignacio Quintón (1881-1925), playing a cuatro that we today call the "early cuatro."  The photo was taken in 1909.

Later, when the cuatro was included into the  orchestras playing in the upscale city salons, the more skilled cuatro players developed techniques that included all four strings. But they nonetheless had to overcome the considerable technical limitations of the ancient tuning scheme, which created formidable difficulties in it's execution. These undoubtedly led to the instrument's ultimate demise in the 20th century, despite efforts to modernize its stringing as we will see below.

 The Eight-String Cuatro:
the early cuatro's
attempt at modernity

A eight-string cuatro made by Juan Olivera in Yauco during the 40s, property of the family of the late, great eight-string cuatro player Norberto Cales                                         Photo by Juan Sotomayor

Listen to an eight-string cuatro in a late-twenties recording of the guaracha Adios Mojica by Fausto Delgado and the Grupo Piñita

For a relatively short period in cuatro history, a small crop of extraordinarily beautiful instruments emerged in the southern coast of Puerto Rico, in the region including the cities of Yauco and Ponce during the decades of 1920-1940. Notably, they were played by skilled masters such as Heriberto Torres, Efraín Ronda, Norberto Cales and Tuto Feliciano. Although recordings exist of the eight-string cuatro playing popular music, the instrument was most commonly heard in performance of what has been called Puerto Rican classical music: mazurcas, danzas, valses, fox-trots, polcas, pasillos and other otros salon-music genres. Most of the eight-string cuatros made on the Island were product of great yaucano makers Efraín Ronda y Juan Olivera.
     This new instrument form retained precisely the same string scale and tuning as its four-string cuatro antiguo forebear. However, it differed significantly by its use of steel strings configured in four double-string courses.

A A   EE    aa    dd

...from lowest to highest pitch. The eight-string cuatro also differed from the early cuatro in its shape, which we believe was inspired by the influx of North American mandolins that were currently in vogue across the Americas. Indeed its stringing was precisely the same as the mandolin: four doubled metal string courses tuned in unison. But just like its predecessor the early four-string cuatro, its ancient tuning scheme made the eight-string difficult to play by any but the most skilled players. So the instrument disappeared together with the obsolete four-string cuatro by the early 1950s.

Gourd cuatro

String instrument soundboxes made from dried gourds proliferated during remote times in cultures of ancient West African civilizations. As a consequence, it is reasonable to infer that the Puerto Rican tradition of making stringed instruments using the dried out shell of the fruit of the gourd bush is derived from the cultural memories of enslaved West Africans that were brought to the Island before the twentieth century. Although this configuration is rare nowadays, cuatristas still play it and even the late, great Maso Rivera recorded an entire record album on a gourd cuatro.

Gourd Cuatro in the Teodoro Vidal collection at the Smithsonian Intitution in Washington DC

Maso Rivera dedicated an entire recording of tunes
played on a gourd cuatro

Gourd cuatro made by
Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez of Hartford, Connecticut

The soft-waisted "Southern" Cuatro

A small number of extremely elegant eight and ten string cuatros were made during a brief period (between the twenties and forties, we believe) by Yauco artisan Juan Olivera and others, that were based on the wedge-semicircular form but varied distinctively by have a soft waist, rather than the sharp waist of its early cuatro forebears. The Cuatro Project recently acquired a relic of a "southern cuatro" recently to add to its instrument collection, as seen below:

We have an article about another rare Southern cuatro we found here.

The Cuatro "families:" Cuatro Soprano, Tenor, Alto, and Bass

The concept of a cuatro "family" was the brainchild of a Maestro Jorge Rubiano during the early years of the Instituto de Cultura (1950s). He proposed that the folk instrument could be raised in stature to the level of symphonic performance by the creation of a cuatro "orchestra" that could play pieces of the classical repertory. Rubiano had already established in Puerto Rico a well-known and highly-regarded mandolin orchestra during the 30s and 40s made up of mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mando-bass, each playing the role of violin, viola, cello and bass. He interested the Instituto de Cultura to commission first Antonio Rodriguez Navarro, and then after he went blind, Cristobal Santiago, to make a symphonic family of varying sized cuatros to fill the individual roles of an orchestral string section. I believe they actually played several concerts at the Instituto, but as too often happens with the Instituto, the project died when the next election changed the political party in power.

The "Seis"
The Seis is simply the name the Cuatro Project gives the cuatros that it has seen, strung with six pairs of strings instead of five (12 total). They are not traditional instruments, strictly speaking, but rather contemporary variations of the instrument by makers asked to furnish a cuatro in this special way. Some musicians have asked for them because they want to broaden the instrument's range higher or lower. Others were guitarists who simply wanted to tune it and play it like a guitar without having to learn the cuatro's distinctive tuning. The sixth course is either an additional treble course or an additional course in the bass, accoding to the preference of the purchaser.

The "Cuatro Sonero"

The great prize-winning Puerto Rican cuatro master (master teacher, master player and master builder) Cristóbal Santiago includes among his many creations an interesting variant of the familiar cuatro that carries five triple-string courses rather than the usual five double-string courses. This adds up to fifteen strings, which as you can imagine, presents the player with unique challenges. In the video at right Santiago displays his skill on the difficult instrument as well as his mastery of the form.

Eusebio González

El Indio de Sabana Grande [The Indian from Sabana Grande]
(approx. 1850-1925)

Eusebio González Ocasio was recognized as a great cuatrista of his times, native of the Indiera Fria neighborhood of Sábana Grande. The photo at left was taken in 1898, offering evidence that the ten-string cuatro was being played during the nineteenth century.

Listen to Joaquín Rivera playing his ten-string cuatro in a trio with the mandolin of José López Rivera and the violarina (fretted violin) of Felipe Rodriguez in Elenita

The folklorist Francisco López Cruz described Jesús Osorio as "the best cuatrista that Puerto Rico has produced." During the first years of the 20th century, Osorio introduced the cuatro to the discipline of the solfeggio and was the first in naming the strings of the cuatro according to their proper musical notes.
 

Renown cuatrista from the Yauco region, one of the greatest on the four and eight string cuatros.

Confesor Juarbe

Confesor Juarbe appears often in the praises of the great cuatro players of today. He was teacher to the great Sarrail Archilla.

The great self-taught cuatrista plays for the Yauco Philharmonic Orchestra at age 25. At 32 años he moves to New York City where he learns to compose music. Torres was considered the best cuatrista of his time, a master of the four and eight-string cuatro. The doubling of the cuatro's strings is incorrectly attributed to him, but his achievement were legion nonetheless.

See our Heriberto Torres page here.

Norberto Cales Martínez was one of the supreme exponents of the eight-string cuatro, a member of the venerated fraternity of Southern custristas that included Heriberto Torres, Pedro Hilario and later, Tuto Feliciano.

  Hear Norberto Cales & the Yauco Philharmonic Orchestra in an interpretation of the danza, Sara

Visit our Norberto Cales page here.

Yayito Maldonado was one of the most distinguished performers of the New York musical scene during the decades of 1920 and 1930. He was well known equally for his skills on the cuatro, guitar and the tres. During his career he is featured in many groups, including the Trio Boricua, Cuarteto Machín, Quinteto La Plata, Sexteto de Pedro Flores, Canario y su Grupo, and thel Grupo Antilla.

Listen to Yayito playing an early four-gut-string cuatro in the Christmas tune, Aguinaldo de Navidad 

Yayito with Canario y su Grupo: Al Romper la Aurora  (Antonio & David Morales collection)

Now listen to Yayito playing an early cuatro with the Trio Boricua in Al Llegar a Machuelito 

Rafael Sánchez
Fello

Cuatrista from the Barrio Abras of Corozal. The Corozal historian Antonio Moreno tells us that the great guitarist and folklorist Paquito Lopez Cruz of Naranjito received his first music lessons with him. He also says that the great Maestro Ladí would visit him from Vega Alta, like other cuatristas from other regions, to hear him play his rustic cuatro. He never wanted to change his cuatro, even when a new one was given to him. He never recorded or even left his town of Corozal. His son, on the other hand, was the famed Paquito Sanchez, first guitar of the Cuarteto Mayarí when it began, who later was integrated into the Cuarteto Marcan in New York, and then later formed the Sexteto La Plata." He died of tuberculosis in 1940. 

Notes by Dr. Mike Fucile of Corozal

Juan Hilario

Cuatrista from the Southern region of the Island. Hilario played the early four-string cuatro. He was one of the great four and eight-string cuatristas from Yauco, a group that includes his father Pedro Hilario, Norberto Cales, Heriberto Torres, and Tuto Feliciano.

He was a cuatristas in the Ladí and don Felo's Grupo Aurora during the 1930s. Later he becomes the first cuatrista (of a long list to follow) to join Ladi's in Ladí's new group, Industrias Nativas and is the cuatrista later replaced by Sarriel Archilla. In the photo at left we see Juan Coto when he performed with Titi Amadeo's group Rosas de Oro during the 1930s.

A pioneering cuatrista who recorded with Rafael Hernández in New York. He has been recognized as the first cuatrista to introduce the cuatro into Jazz music. Composer of "Confesion", which was sung by the great singer, Francisco Quiñones «El Paisa».
 

Named by the folklorist Heriberto Torres Vázquez as "one of the most gifted of the Puerto Rican players of the cuatro that came from the center of the Island." The great cuatrista Roque Navarro (see below) told us: "The one who inspired me the most was from my home town, and died about twenty years ago [circa 1956]. That man who played the cuatro was fifty years ahead of his time. That man was out of his world playing the cuatro. And Norberto [Cales] knew him too. He was nicknamed Fife. He was called Rafael Medina. He was a shoemaker. I'd go to hear him and watch how he'd move his fingers. That's how I learned--watching him. He was my spiritual maestro.."
 

Efraín Ronda
(1899-2003)

We are preparing a page dedicated to Efraín Ronda here.

Maestro Ladí was arguably the musician who made the greatest impact on the cuatro and its music during the twentieth century. He rescued and renewed the 19th century traditional forms on the cuatro. He created an enormous treasury of music in both the traditional and contemporary styles, as well as a new way to hear and play the cuatro. He adapted music from other lands to the cuatro, but each time giving it distinctly Puerto Rican feel. Many of the great older players of today consider him to have supplied the foundations for their playing styles.

Visit our Maestro Ladí page here.

Don Pini plays his own composition, Retorno Al Viví, in a home recording. (courtesy of Ray Vázquez)

Ray Vazquez and Polo Ocasio play de familiar Christmas piece written by don Pinin,
De Lejanas Tierras

Cristino Maldonado Don Pinín
(1893- ?)

One of Puerto Rico's best cuatristas, who was famous during the nineteen thirties. Cristino Maldonado Muriel was born in the barrio Yeguada of Vega Baja. At an early age, he was given a cuatro made by his uncle, which his father forbade him from playing saying that it was a waste of his time. At the age of eight, his mother died and his father left, so he had to become responsible for his family. He worked as a sugar cane cutter and played the cuatro to make money. By the age of 15 he had developed his own playing style and thus livened up many local dances. Later he moved to Utuado where his father had a business. There he married his second wife Urania Sigurani de Maldonado and brought into the world seven children. Utuado came to be his home for many years and was so fond of it that many of his compositions included the name of his town, such as A Utuado Todo Mi Amor [To Utuado with all my love]. Don Pini wrote a lot of pieces and did not limit himself to traditional music. Among his famous pieces we find the Christmas favorite, De Lejanas Tierras, and Retorno al Vivi, Recuerdos de Lares, A Mis Amigos, Desesperación, and many others.

Revista del Instituto del Cuatro Puertorriqueño, No. 11. 1978, written by José Enrique Ayoroa Santaliz

Archilla and Ladí play the cuatro as a duo for the first time on the radio with Ladí's Conjunto Industrias Nativas beginnin in 1936, establishing a new way to hear the cuatro. The play together, Sarrail playing first and Ladí playing second cuatro, until Ladí's death in 1979. The polished and sophisticated sound that they cultivate together raise the cuatro from its rustic ambiance and to a higher plane which is now called Puerto Rican "classic music." After Ladí's death, Archilla keeps the Conjunto Típico Ladí alive playing as a duo with Modesto Nieves.

Visit our Sarrail Archilla page here.

"I was the first to bring the cuatro into Salsa music and I've had the opportunity to travel the world around playing the cuatro: I've been in Japan, in Europe, [in Africa] and I've been to these places repeatedly, and these countries already know Yomo Toro and what I've carried in my hands is the cuatro. I haven't taken a guitar, or an electrico guitar, or a requinto, none of those things. I carry the Puerto Rican cuatro because you've got to honor Puerto Rico and the national instrumento of Enchanted Island Puerto Rico is the cuatro..."

Our page dedicated to Yomo can be found here

Neri Orta (1920-2012)

All those who knew the great master Neri Orta concur that other than his mentor,  Ladislao Martínez, no one in the world of the cuatro him in regards to ability, knowledge, experience, art and his commitment to the music and to the national instrument. Our page dedicated to Neri Orta can be found here.

Probably few Puerto Ricans have heard of Francisco Ortiz, one of the most exciting and distinctive cuatristas in our musical history. He backed some of the greatest musicians and singers of his times. His style has profoundly influenced some of today´s most notable players, such as Modesto Nieves and Edwin Colòn Zayas. He was born in 1919 in the Barrio Jagua Sabana of Ciales, Puerto Rico. At seven years of age he begins to execute his first notes on the cuatro. One of his first teacher was the cialeño Manolo Otero.
   During his musical trajectory, Panchón compuso composed more than thirty instrumental pieces in the traditional styles. When he played the "bombardino" part of danzas, he showed off his cuatro in a unique and masterful manner. Samples of his work survive in the several recording of the Trío Cialeño with Chuíto el de Bayamón and in several Puerto Rican films.
                                                                  See our Panchón Ortiz page here

See Pascual Melendez
on YouTube here

A renown disciple and accompanist to Maestro Ladi. He was born in Manatí but moves to Morovis at an early age. There he begins his relationship with his instrument and develops his musical ear. At twenty he heads towards San Juan, where he begins as a worker in a button factory. He organizes his first group, known as the conjunto Orión, along with Pepe Rodríguez. As Pascual became a maste of his instrument and its music, he joins musicians of the order of Juan Peña, Jaime Peña and Chin Peña, and together they organize the group, Melodías Nativas. When Pascual mastered the cuatro to perfection, he meets Maestro Ladí, Iluminado Ayala and don Felipe Goyco (don Felo), and they form the conjunto Industrias Nativas, which brought glory to our music. En 1971 he travels to France, England, Spain and other European capitals accompanying the group Areyto and thel Ballet de Tony D´Astro.
Redacted from a eulogy written in 1990 by Dr. Miguel A. Arroyo

Juan Peña

We've dedicated a special page for Juan Peña, the great cuatrista from Morovis who accompanied the great troubadours Ramito, Luisito and Moralito

Maso was a supreme culture icon, perhaps the best known and best loved of all the Puerto Rican cuatristas. Better known for his versatility, humor and comic exploits, he left for posterity a marvelous legacy of original compositions composed in the traditional style, which next to Ladís, make up the lion's share of today's cuatro repertory.

Visit our Maso Rivera page here.

Agustín Feliciano Tuto
(1932-2005)

Yauco-native Tuto Feliciano was, in our opinion, on of the best Puerto Rican cuatro players of modern times, at the same technical level as Ladí, Nieves Quintero, Neri Orta, Francisco Ortíz Piñeiro and Yomo Toro. He was a masterful tres player besides, a skill he developed from his early days. He backed the legendary Ramito for many years. He spent his last years as a resident of New Jersey, performing on television and on recordings. Just before his death he allowed us several interviews and a treasury of private photographs, some of which we've included on his own webpage.

Visit our Tuto Feliciano page here.

A native of the town of Hatillo, Pedro Padilla first became known playing on the radio program "Atardecer Jíbaro,"[Jíbaro Twilight"] which came out of Arecibo radio station WNIK during the fifties. From there he propelled a long and triumphant career as an outstanding professional cuatro player. Padilla accompanied major Puerto Rican traditional singers such as German Rosario, El Indio de Bayamon and Juaniquillo, among others. He currently has an enthusiastic following on the United States West Coast.

List to Pedro Padilla playing a difficult Heriberto Torres composition, a fox trot called El Vigoroso. (Courtesy David Morales collection).

Goyo Salas
A cuatrista from Ponce that worked as a cuatrista and tresista in numerous groups from the Southern region of the Island, such as the Grupo Campesino of the great plena singer Toñín Romero; in 1949 with the great troubadour Arturo Silvagnoli and his group Aires de Borinquen; and in 1957 with the Ponce group Trio Primavera, with whom he recorded several recordings on the Casa Greco label. Goyo Salas also appeared on radio, playing during the fifties in the famous program, Fiesta en el Batey.

Hear Nicanor Zayas play here

Nicanor Zayas
(1910-2009)

Even though Nicanor Zayas Berrios never recorded commercially, he is considered one of the most respected expert cuatrista of our times. Zayas was one of the first cuatristas that took the cuatro out of the jíbaro music sphere, opening its repertory to world and pop music of his day. His musical tastes were broad and all-encompassing: it included South American, North American and Mexican music--even movie tunes. His friend, the cuatrista Ray Vazquez told us of Zayas:  "A living legend at 98 years of age, he was very influential to cuatro players of the mountainous regions of central Puerto Rico (Ciales- his native town, Morovis, Orocovis, Barranquitas, etc.). I would quickly reference him any day I am asked to produce cuatro music that sounds “authentically Puerto Rican”. His rapid triplet scales and punchy right hand execution is a very idiomatic style which I have incorporated into my “jíbaro-style” interpretations, which is also a trademark of Francisco”Pancho” Ortíz Piñeiro, his counterpart in the Musica Jíbara style (Don Nicanor leaned more toward instrumental and popular tunes). He has shared with me a numerous amount of his compositions and advice, and I am honored by his friendship, as well as that of his beautiful family."

Edgardo Miranda
(1952 -2009)
A truly excellent cuatro and guitar player who was also a skilled composer and arranger. He traveled through Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, the Americas and the world, with great Jazz artists as well as traditional and pop musicians. He also appeared on television, and on Broadway. As a founding member of the seminal s Pleneros de la 21, Edgardo was a key figure in the originality, development and popularity of the group. Edgardo Miranda was doubtlessless one of the best Latino jazz guitarists and one of the most innovate artists on the Puerto Rican cuatro. His untimely departure represents a great loss to Puerto Rican music and to his companions of the Pleneros de la 21, who he played with since the group's inception more than 25 years ago.
                                                          Translated from notes from www.fondaboricua.com