About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 30. Chapters: Cuban classical pianists, Cuban jazz pianists, Rita Montaner, La Palabra, Nicolas Ruiz Espadero, Jorge Bolet, Moises Simons, Hubert de Blanck, Arminda Schutte, Roberto Fonseca, Ernesto Lecuona, Mauricio Vallina, Marco Rizo, Eliseo Grenet, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Roberto Carcasses, Bola de Nieve, Santos Ojeda, Jose Manuel Jimenez Berroa, Manuel Galban, Antonio Maria Romeu, Ruben Gonzalez, Omar Sosa, Bebo Valdes, Ignacio Cervantes, Conchita Espinosa, Chucho Valdes, Anselmo Sacasas, Jacob Lateiner, Rodrigo Prats, Adalberto Alvarez, Cecilia Arizti, Cesar Pedroso, Aida Diestro, Jorge Anckermann, Frank Dominguez, Armando Orefiche. Excerpt: Rita Montaner, born Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda (Guanabacoa, 20 August 1900 - Havana, 17 April 1958), was a Cuban singer, pianist, actress and star of stage, film, radio and television. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette (a star), and she was well-known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on various occasions. She was probably the best-loved female star in Cuba of the period 1920-1960; they called her Rita de Cuba. Though classically trained, her mark was made as a singer of Afrocubanist salon songs. She was one of three great musicians born in the small town of Guanabacoa in the province of Havana; the others were Bola de Nieve and Ernesto Lecuona. The lives of the three friends were connected professionally; they worked together many times. Rita's family and upbringing was middle-class. Her father, Domingo Montaner Pulgaron, was a white pharmacist and her mother, Mercedes Facenda, a mulatta; she herself was short in stature, good-looking with a fine smile, and intelligent. She learnt English, Italian and French at religious school, and at 10 attended the Peyrellade Conservatory in Havana. There she studied...
