The first song I’d like to share is by Nelson Ferreyra y su Sonora (Peru), “Flores Para Tu Altar” from the La Guarachera LP. I have the Mexican Audioton repress of this tough LP, and it does not list the musicians but from comparing other songs I’m fairly sure the vocals are by Naylle Fernandez, who turns out to be from Panama (!).
She was obviously listening to a lot of Cuba’s Celina and Reutilio, as she and Nelson also recorded a very heavy LP of covers of their songs on the amazing Peruvian MAG label (1968) that also saw a release on Discuba:
Let’s talk a little about Celina Gonzalez. Born in Matanzas Province, she met her partner and husband Reutilio Domínguez in Santiago and they co-authored “A Santa Barbara” (Que Viva Chango) together. They went on to create a number of brilliant songs in the Guajira/Musica Campesina genre and are a centerpiece of the discussion around what is African and what is Spanish (Especially from the Canary Islands) in Cuban music.
Per Wikipedia “In 1948 they began working with the famous Ñico Saquito and gained increasing popularity on radio, film and television. They performed in New York with Beny Moré and Barbarito Diez.” There are some great black and white videos of her singing in this era on Youtube, really worth taking a look at.
Reutilio passed in 1971, but Celina has some really beautiful recordings I believe from the late ’70s or early ’80s, including this reworking of “Que Viva Chango”, which I first heard on a CD I picked up in Haifa, Israel in the late ’90s:
Finally, here is “Eso No Es Na” by the great Maria Teresa Vera, a key figure in the early history of recorded Son Cubano. As a composer and guitarist who led her own Sexteto and recorded successfully for years, she seems like the perfect subject matter for a book about her as a woman of accomplishment in an era that was very difficult for women (I’d love to show this to my daughters.)
Here are some highlights of her career from Wikipedia, which dovetail with both Ignacio Piñeiro of Septeto Nacional and Lorenzo Hierrezuelo of Duo Los Compadres, two huge names in AfroCuban music history:
“She started her career as a singer in 1911 in a theatre where she sang the criolla “Mercedes” of Manuel Corona…
She formed a duo with Rafael Zequeira from 1916–1924, when he fell ill and died. They had made over a hundred recordings together in New York, most of which have not survived…
She then formed the Sexteto Occidente in 1925 with Miguel García as first voice, clavé and Director (because he knew most about music), Ignacio Piñeiro on double bass, Julio Torres Biart on tres, Manuel Reinoso on bongo and Francisco Sánchez on maracas…
She joined Lorenzo Hierrezuelo as a duet in 1935, and this duet lasted for 27 years. For much of this time Hierrezuelo ran his duo with Vera alongside his partnership with Compay Segundo (Francisco Repilado), as the duo Los Compadres.”
These recordings were likely done in the ’70s, and released on an LP on the Egrem label in 1990:
If you want to hear something unforgettable, Youtube her songs “He Perdido Contigo” and “Veinte Años”.