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August 29th, 2011
Remembering Arsenio
VENTURA DE JESÚS
GÜIRA DE MACURIJES, Matanzas.— Musicians and
audiences gathered in the town of Güira de Macurijes, in the
central province of Matanzas to honor Cuban music legend Arsenio
Rodriguez.
The celebrations include a tribute concert with
the participation of Pancho Amat who said that honoring Arsenio
Rodríguez was honoring Cuban culture. Audiences coming to
participate in the tribute showed their respect and admiration
for Arsenio at the tribute paid to him in his hometown.
 PANCHO
AMAT paid tribute to the tres guitar player who has always
inspired him.
One of the most anticipated moments of the
tribute was the unveiling of a plaque at Arsenio’s birth place
and early childhood home. At the ceremony, the historian of the
Pedro Betancourt municipality, where the town is located, Julián
Álvarez López, and musician and president of the National
Association of Cuban Artists and Writers in Matanzas Alberto
García, spoke about the contributions of this talented tres
guitar player, who set a new style of execution of the
instrument, set the bases for mambo and is considered one of the
creators of the salsa.
Locals also appreciated the performance by
Pancho Amat and his band Cabildo del Son, and the Arsenio
Rodriguez band –which reformed in 1998. "Arsenio is still alive
among Cuban musicians," said José Dumé Montero, bandleader.
Arsenio Rodríguez (born Ignacio Arsenio Travieso
Scull, Gúira de Macurijes,
31 August 1911 – Los Angeles,
31 December 1970) was a Cuban
musician who played the tres
(Cuban guitar), reorganized the
conjunto and developed the
son montuno,
and other Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1940s and 50s. He claimed to
be the true creator of the mambo,
and was an important and prolific composer who wrote nearly two
hundred song lyrics.
He was left blind when he was a
child after a mule –or a horse, kicked him on the head. His
music emphasized Afro-Cuban rhythm as well as the melodic lead
of the tres,
which he played. His talent and the fact that he was blind
earned him the nickname el ciego maravilloso (the
wonderful blind man). |
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