Remembering Cuba’s King of Rhythm, Benny Moré
Photo Feature by Elio Delgado Valdes
HAVANA TIMES — A festival remembering Benny Moré on the 50th anniversary of the death took place over six days last month here in Havana.
The Cuban musician, singer and composer, was born in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Las Villas (now Cienfuegos) on August 24 1919 and died in Havana on February 19, 1963.
The National Folkloric Group, held numerous activities at its local to honor who, rightly, was called the King of Rhythm and greatest son musician in Cuba. The artists in the photos are Cuba Rumba, Los Nani and Obba-Ilu.
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Just a small correction, Benny More is not the “King of the rhythm”, but the “Barbarian of the rhythm”. I know you need to use some common sense in the translation to try to convey the original meaning, but for the Spanish “barbaro” has the exact same meaning as the English “barbarian” in the rest of the Hispanic world, yet they call him that way, rest of the world be damned.
Thats kind of contradiction between the actual words and the intended meaning is an important part of the Cuban culture, after all we are talking about the same people that affectively call a beautiful woman “a monster” or a brilliant scientist “an animal”, “a burn-out” or even more picturesque expressions. Even in the regular way they use to salute each other “que bola asere” (meaning roughly “whats up buddy”), “asere” means literally “bunch of stinky monkeys”, and the funny thing is that all of them know the mean, yet nobody takes offense in being called that.