Senén Suárez

Abdón Senén Suárez Hernández ( Manguito , Matanzas , July 30, 1922 - Havana , October 6, 2013), with the stage name Senén Suárez , was a Cuban composer , guitarist , arranger and writer .

Early years

He was born in Manguito, a small town in the province of Matanzas, into a humble family. His first encounter with music was through a phonograph in his home, where he listened to recordings of the Septeto Habanero.

He received his first lessons on the Cuban tres at a very young age from Sabino Peñalver. In the late 1930s, he joined various musical groups in Matanzas. As a teenager, he performed in the Valladares Brothers Orchestra, where Pérez Prado occasionally came to reinforce the orchestra at village festivals. It was around this time that he composed his first songs.

Havana 1940

He moved to Havana, where he worked as a dental technician, errand boy, and fruit vendor to survive, and taught himself to play the guitar, not forgetting the tres. During this time, he joined several small groups, winning first prize on the popular radio program "La Corte Suprema del Arte" with one of these. Later, with Luisito Pla, he joined the trio "Luisito Pla y sus guaracheros," playing the tres for three years. Later, with Tony Tejera and Gerardo Pedroso, they formed the Caonabo trio and later formed the "Conjunto Colonial" with singer Nelo Sosa and pianist Carlos Faxa, among other musicians. Twenty works were recorded with this group at PANART, the purpose it had when it was founded, and later disbanded.

Then Senén continued with the Trio Caonabó, but this time with Orlando Vallejo, Tony Tejera, and sometimes Roberto Valdés on bass and Puerto Rican trumpeter Celso Vega, taking the name "Quinteto Celso Vega", which had a program on the radio station RCH Cadena Azul. After a period, Celso Vega returned to New York, while for his part, Ñico Saquito proposed the quartet to create "Los Guaracheros de Oriente", with which they made more than twenty recordings on RCA Victor, premiering works by Ñico Saquito and Celia Romero, among other composers.

Senén occasionally joins Lusitio Plat to work in film, theater, and radio. Maestro Ernesto Grenet meets with them as an audience member at one of their performances and suggests they join his group, which was working at Tropicana. However, Luisito Plat and Gerardo declined, as they had other means of support, while Senén did join the group.

Cabaret Tropicana (1948-1958)

He alternates with personalities such as Bebo Valdés, Nat King Cole and Carmen Miranda, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, Libertad Lamarque, Ana Gloria and Rolando, among others.

In 1950, on a tour of Venezuela, he met Celia Cruz and became friends. The famous singer would later perform several of his works. Upon returning from the tour, Ernesto Grenet lent him the group after his retirement, and they gave their first performance at the Rio Club, soon being called back to Tropicana. His musical curiosity and desire to improve led him to study theory, solfeggio, and counterpoint, studies that allowed him to develop his work as an arranger and director. During this time, pianist Rubén González and singers Laíto Sureda and Orlando Vallejo joined his group.

In 1950, with the Puchito label, they included the song "Guaguancó Callejero" on their first album as "Conjunto Senén Suárez", which enjoyed great international acceptance. For about ten years, they remained in the first line as the dance orchestra of the Cabaret Tropicana.

The Senén Suárez Combo

Between 1958 and 1959, he formed a new format and began to play the electric guitar. He also performed on the most popular and prestigious stages of Havana's nightlife of those years, accompanying artists such as La Lupe and Paulina Álvarez, among others. Around this time, many musicians were opting for jazz, but Senén followed his then-leader, " Arsenio Rodríguez," although to meet public demand, he included drums, congas, piano, and another singer, in order to be able to cover a wider variety of genres.

After the triumph of the revolution, Senén and his band continued performing at the Salón Rojo del Capri and at La Red. Portillo Scull began singing, and among the songs they made popular was "Canta lo Sentimental" by composer Urbano Gómez Montiel. In 1967, he participated in the Canadian International Exposition, garnering great public acclaim and an extension to his initially agreed-upon stay. Upon his return, he developed a series of his own instrumentals and covers of internationally popular songs of the time, fused with Cuban and Caribbean rhythms, an initiative that was both well-received and criticised by extremists of the time.

Senén also frequently participated in various radio and television programs. In the following years, the Senén Suárez band was included in several artistic embassies around the world, bringing Cuban music to countries such as Canada, Indonesia, Angola, the USSR, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Guinea.

He remained musically active until 1988, although he continued to be invited to various radio and television programs as a participating figure in the history of Cuban music. [ 5 ]

Authorial work

He has over a hundred works of different genres, such as guaracha, son, bolero and rumba to his credit. His works have been performed by internationally renowned artists such as Celia Cruz, Benny Moré, Laito Sureda, Oscar de León, La Orquesta Aragón, Orishas and La Sonora Matancera, among others. [ 6 ]

In 1997, he wrote the book "Las Raíces del Son", an investigative document on the history of the Septeto Habanero and, along with it, a compilation of the bulk of his discography. In recent years, he has dedicated himself to writing a series of articles about his experiences, published in a music section of the Cuban culture portal Cubarte. [ 7 ]

Some of his compositions

Soup in a Bottle

Rumba Queen

The Barracks

Vallán Vallende

Columbia and Guaguancó

There Na' Ma

The Proclamations of Saint Christopher

The Movement Corner

I am a farmer

Guasabeando Rock and Roll

Blessed Image