Benny Moré (Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez, 24 August 1919 – 19 February 1963), or Beny, was a Cuban singer. He is often thought of as the greatest Cuban popular singer of all time. He was musical, and had a fluid tenor voice which he colored and phrased with great expressivity. Moré was a master of most genres of Cuban music, such as the son montuno, mambo, guaracha, and bolero. In particular, it is unusual for a singer to be equally proficient at both the fast rhythms (e.g. guaracha) and the slower rhythms, such as the bolero. Moré also formed and led the leading Cuban big band of the 1950s, until his death in 1963.

The eldest of eighteen children, Moré was born Bartolomé Moré in Santa Isabel de las Lajas in the former province of Las Villas in central Cuba. His maternal great-great grandfather, Ta Ramón Gundo Paredes, was said to be the son of the king of a tribe in the Congo who was captured by slave traders and sold to a Cuban plantation owner (he was later liberated and died as a freeman at age 94).

In 1936, at age seventeen, he left Las Lajas for Havana, where he lived by selling bruised and damaged fruits and vegetables and medicinal herbs. Six months later he returned to Las Lajas and went to cut cane for a season with his brother Teodoro. With the money he earned and Teodoro’s savings, he bought his first decent guitar.

Trío Matamoros and Mexico.

Ciro Rodríguez, of the famed Trío Matamoros, heard Moré singing in the bar El Temple and was greatly impressed. Shortly thereafter,in 1942, Conjunto Matamoros was engaged for a live performance for the station 1010. However, Miguel Matamoros was indisposed and asked Mozo Borgellá (director of Septeto Cauto), to lend him a singer. Borguellá sent Moré, who remained several years with the Matamoros, making a number of recordings.

Moré replaced Miguel Matamoros as lead singer, and the latter dedicated himself to leading the band.
On June 21, 1945 Moré went with Conjunto Matamoros to Mexico, where he performed in two of the most famous cabarets of the age, the Montparnasse and the Río Rosa. He made several recordings. Conjunto Matamoros returned to Havana, but Moré remained in Mexico. Rafael Cueto said to him: “Fine, but just remember that they call burros “bartolo” here. Stay, but change your name.” “Ok,” replied Moré, “from now on my name is Beny, Beny Moré.”

Moré was left penniless and got permission to work from the performing artists’ union. With this, he was able to get a job at the Río Rosa, where he formed the duet Dueto Fantasma with Lalo Montané.

In Mexico City, Moré made recordings for RCA Victor, with Perez Prado: Bonito y sabroso, Mucho corazón, Pachito el che, La mucura, Rabo y oreja and other numbers. He recorded Dolor Karabalí, which Moré considered his best composition recorded with Pérez Prado, one he never wanted to re-record, also his recording in Mexico with Rafael de Paz Orchestra of “Bonito y Sabroso” was never recorded again by More, even though his famous composition of the months prior to leaving Mexico became in time the theme of his big band in Cuba. More was always reluctant to record newer versions of his hit songs, as he thought “you don’t fix what’s not broken”. There were at least 22 recordings of Moré with the Prado orchestra.

Moré also recorded with the orchestra of Mariano Mercerón: Me voy pal pueblo y Desdichado”, “Mucho Corazon”,”Ensalada de Mambo”< "Rumberos de Ayer", "Encantado de la Vida", etc. with the Conjunto de Lalo Montane,a Colombian singer,composer, with which he recorded in Mexico forming a famous duo called "The Phantom Duet" or "Dueto Fantasma" . He also recorded with Mexican orchestras, specially with the one directed by Rafael de Paz; they recorded Yiri yiri bon, La Culebra, Mata siguaraya, Solamente una vez and Bonito y Sabroso, a mambo song where he praises the dancing skills of the Mexicans, and claims that Mexico City and La Habana are sister cities.

During the spring of 1952,around April, Moré returned to Cuba. He was a star in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Brazil and Puerto Rico, but virtually unknown on the island. His first Cuban recordings were with Mariano Merceron & his Orchestra, songs like “Fiesta de Tambores”, “Salomon”, “La Chola”, etc, etc. Moré began alternating between performances in the Cadena Oriental and trips to Havana to record at the RCA studios in CMQ Radiocentro.

In Havana, Moré worked for the radio station RHC Cadena Azul, with the orchestra of Bebo Valdés, who introduced the new style called “batanga”. The presenter of the show, Ibraín Urbino, presented him as El Bárbaro del Ritmo. They offered him the opportunity to record with Sonora Matancera, but he declined the offer because he didn’t care for the sound of the group.

After the batanga fell out of fashion, Moré was contracted by Radio Progreso with the orchestra of Ernesto Duarte Brito. In addition to the radio, he also performed at dances, cabarets and parties. When he sang in Havana’s Centro Gallego, people filled the sidewalks and the gardens of the Capitolio to hear him.

In 1952, Moré made a recording with the Orquesta Aragón with whom he would perform in dance halls. Orquesta Aragón was from Cienfuegos and was having trouble breaking into Havana and Moré helped them in this way.

La Banda Gigante.

The first performance of Moré’s Banda Gigante (Big Band) was in the program Cascabeles Candado of the station CMQ. The Banda was generally sixteen musicians, comparable in size with the orchestras of Xavier Cugat and Pérez Prado. Although Moré could not read music, he arranged material by singing parts to his arrangers.
In the years 1953 and 1955, the Banda Gigante became immensely popular. In 1956 and 1957, it toured Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, Colombia, Panama, Mexico and the United States, where the group played at the Oscar ceremonies. In Havana, it played at the dance halls La Tropical and El Sierra. In 1960, it started performing both night and day.

Moré was offered a tour of Europe – France in particular – but he rejected it because of fear of flying (he had by that time been in three air accidents).

In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, many of Cuba’s top musical figures emigrated, but Moré stayed in Cuba, among, as he said, “mi gente” (my people).

Moré was an alcoholic, and began to show signs of liver failure in his early 40s. When he died in 1963 of cirrhosis of the liver, an estimated 100,000 fans attended his funeral. He was 43 years old.

Awards and recognition.

A May 12, 2011 multimedia lecture on Moré in the heavily Cuban-American community of Union City, New Jersey.
On June 11, 2006, Benny Moré was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame at Celia Cruz Park in Union City, New Jersey, a heavily Cuban-American community that has hosted musical presentations[8] and multimedia lectures on the singer.

Moré is remembered in the 2006 film, El Benny, which is based on parts of his life, and includes new versions of his songs performed by musicians including Chucho Valdés, Juan Formell and Orishas.

He is also remembered in books, such as Miami-based writer Daína Chaviano’s 2008 novel The Island of Eternal Love, in which Moré appears as one of the characters, and the University Press of Florida’s 2009 book, Wildman of Rhythm: The Life and Music of Benny Moré, the first English language biography of Moré.

Discography.

Castellano que bueno baila usted
Vertientes Camagüey
Bonito y sabroso
Asì es la humanidad
Santa Isabel de las Lajas
Soy guajiro.

Agencies/Various/Wiki/InternetPhotos/youtube/thecubanhistory.com
The Cuban History, Hollywood.
Arnoldo Varona, Editor.

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