Mr. Babalu - Miguelito Valdés

 

Most Requested Rhumbas

Mr. Babalu

Most Requested Rhumbas 

Miguelito Valdés and His Orchestra

Decca Records (10-inch 33 rpm) DL 5374

1951

From the back cover: Miguelito Valdés was probably the first performer to introduce Afro Cuban singing to the United States. He and his group use the same, centuries old percussion instruments that the old slaves brought with them from Africa. Some very important components of the orchestra are: bongos, twin hand-drums that are tuned by the heat of a flame applied near the skin or playing surface; maracas, small hollowed gourds, filled with beads or pebbles, which are shaken by their handles; claves, a pair of cylindrical pieces of wood that are struck together; the concerro, common cowbell or piece of metal; and finally, the well known conga, or big hand drum, played while resting on the ground or carried by the player slung over the shoulder.

Miguelito himself as one of the most vibrant personalities in the entertainment world. He was born in Havana, Cuba, at the outbreak of World War I. His parents, Spanish-Cuban father and Mexican mother, christened him Eugenio Lázaro Miguel Izquierdo Valdés y Hernandez, but with forthrightness and vision, he shortened his name to the diminutive form Miguelito Valdés, and so it has remained.

Valdés senior intended that Miguelito should study hard and become a lawyer or politician. To this end Miguelito was entered in the fashionable Zapata School where he excelled in music, played hookey, and initiated the other students into the intricacies of the native songs and dances. These he learned by haunting the Havana docksides. There he would watch, wide-eyed, the goings-on in the cantinas or bars, and memorize the songs he heard with an instinctively musical ear.

Soon after his fifteenth birthday, Miguelito took a fling at amateur boxing and succeeded in cutting a wide swath in the middle-weight ranks, gaining much renown among the sporting bloods in Cuba's capital. He made some excursions to the night spots and, when recognized, was always introduced to the assembled crowds. Being unable to exhibit his boxing prowess, he would wind up by singing several selections, usually to his own guitar or bass accompaniment.

One of these impromptu concerts won him the offer of a position singing at the Havana Riverside Casino. His renditions of the Cuban tunes of the day gained him almost instant recognition and the Casino rapidly became the number one hot spot. There followed tours to Puerto Rico's famed Escambron; the Union Club in Havana; theaters in Venezuela and Guatemala; and a triumphant return to Cuba and his finest engagement singing in the beautiful and widely-known Casino de la Playa, one of the most ornately appointed clubs in the world.

Night club appearances, records and starring roles on radio shows brought him to the attention of North American theatrical people and he made his first trip to this country in April of 1940. A few days after his arrival he was signed to appear at the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria. He remained here for two years, his stay punctuated by theater appearances in our largest cities, engagements in America's finest supper clubs, and a seventy-eight week appearance on the Camel "Rumba Revue."

Many writers have attempted to describe Miguelito's work and have in most instances fallen back on a phrase coined by one of the contemporaries: "Savage is the word for Miguelito." It describes his style and his singing well. He attacks a song much as he would attacking a boxing opponent. To watch this six-foot, one hundred and ninety pound dynamo in action is stirring. His coal black hair tossing, his body swaying to the rhythms he sings, his hands beating on the conga-drum, he is a treat to watch as well as to hear.

The Afro-Cuban songs he signs are as natural to him as breathing, several of them having been written especially for him by Cuban composers. One of the numbers in this collection owes its wide popularity to the skill of Valdés – so much so, in fact, that Valdés has become identified with the song and is known as "Mr. Babalu."

Babalu - Margarita Lecuona

La Negra Leono - Antonio Fenades

Marimba - Agustin Lara - Abe Tuvim

Rumba Rumbero - Miguelito Valdés - Albert Gamse

Walter Winchell Rumba - Noro Morales - Johnnie Camacho

Rumba Ritmica - Miguelito Valdés - Johnnie Camacho

Escucha Mi Son - Noro Morales - Johnnie Camacho

Bambarito - Electo Rosell-I. Pineiro