ADALBERTO CECILIO ALVAREZ ZAYAS
Adalberto Álvarez, is known as el Caballero del Son. He was a musician, a composer, an arranger and a conductor. He started his artistic career playing the paila (a Latin musical instrument) in 1957. He was later an arranger and conductor of his father´s, Enrique Fortunato Álvarez (Nené), group, Avance Juvenil, in Camagüey. He started at Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in 1966 until 972. He was a professor of Musical Literature in the Escuela Provincial de Arte de Camagüey. a year later .
Zayas was the founder of two of the most prestigious bands of all times in the country “Son 14”in 1978, and “Adalberto Álvarez y su Son” in 1984.He was looking for new echoing possibilities , he used two trombones, one tres, one paila, trumpets, piano, double bass, bongo and conga, and had a great melodic, harmonic and rhythmic richness with the last band. “Adalberto Álvarez y su Son” represented Cuba in different festivals and national and international sceneries. Places where they showed their peculiar style of playing the Cuban music for dancing. His music was the favorite one for the audience of dancers in Cuba for more than four decades. People enjoyed musical themes like: Y qué tú quieres que te den and A bailar el toca toca.
Some of Adalberto Álvarez Works have been interpreted by important orchestras and international and national figures of the musical world as la Charanga Casino, Juan Luis Guerra y La 440, Willy Rosario, El Trabuco Mexicano, Roberto Roena, Oscar De León, among others. Con su grupo han actuado o grabado Celina González, Omara Portuondo, Isaac Delgado, Frank Fernández, Silvio Rodríguez and Gina León have performed or recorded with his band.
He was awarded several national and international prizes and distinctions. He got Orden "Félix Varela", The Cubadisco Prize for El son de Adalberto suena cubano, in the category Música bailable actual (current music for dancing) with Mi tumbao. He was awarded the Premio Nacional de Música (National Prize of Music) in 2008. Besides that, the Provintial Board of Culture in La Habana gave him the Award Gitana Tropical in Octubre 2013 due to his support to the Cuban culture and music.
He was recognized for the 35 years of his orchestra during the ceremony of Premios de Música Cubadisco 2020- 2021. Adalberto was the first to encourage the work done to declare the Día del Son en Cuba, that was celebrated for the first time on may 8th, 2021. He died at the age of 72 years old on September 1st 2021. The popular Cuban music looses one of its most genuine exponents and dancers loose one of their loved artists.
Enrique Fortunato Álvarez (Nené)
Enrique José Fortunato Álvarez Quevedo (Nené) was from Camaguey, and was a singer, an arranger, and a composer. He sang and directed the Conjunto Soneros de Camacho. He is considered one of the most active professional developer of the Son and a defender of the Cuban traditional music.
It was a musical group founded in 1978 by Adalberto Alvarez who was a musician, composer, arranger and conductor in the East of the country. This orchestra gave the music for dancing a new splendor, having hits on the radio, on the television, and in all the places for dance in Cuba. With this group, Adalberto showed a different musical concept. Without abandoning the roots of the traditional Son, he renewed it through the texts, orchestrations and contemporary harmonies, enjoying great popularity.
It is an Emblematic Orchestra that was conducted by Adalberto until his death. It was very successful due to its great musicians and singers as well as the talent of its conductor. He could reconcile, with great talent artistic talent and skills, the most genuine elements of the popular genre, the lyricism of the traditional trova and the contribution of the academic music learned at school. The orchestra, besides having a luxurious repertory in its performances, has always been a promoter of the Cuban music. That is why the orchestra is considered a supporter of the partner dance in Casino way. This was a choreographic- dancing style that emerged at the end of the 40´s in Cuba and is now famous in the whole world.
Cubadisco is the most important International Fair for the record industry of the Cuban music. It is dedicated to a country and to a musical genre every year. It also honors outstanding figures and artists in the Cuban music field. The first event Cubadisco was carried out in 1997.
It is Cuban prize that was instituted in 1997 and given by the Instituto Cubano de la Música. Cuban musicians, alive and living in Cuba are awarded the prize due to the work of a life in the field of creation and interpretation.
It is given by the Dirección Provincial de Cultura de La Habana due to outstanding contributions to the identity and national traditions to honor the work Gitana Tropical, as a work as such, and its creator; the famous vanguard painter Víctor Manuel. It is the highest award given to creators and institutions, whose constant and admirable work has an outstanding role for the national culture.
May 8th has been declared as the Day of the Cuban Son to honor this music and dancing expression and the legacy of its greatest exponents Miguel Matamoros and Miguelito Cuní.