Bartolome Maximilliano, rechristened Beny More, was born in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Cuba on August 24, 1919 and died in Havana, Cuba on February 19, 1963.
His vocal tones were: Romantic for his Boleros. Beny More possessed a natural talent and interpetive gift, especially for boleros) and Joyous for his Mambos and Rumbas. His influences were Miguelito Valdes and Orlando "Cascarita" Guerra, which can be heard in his style of singing.
Beny More started his career in 1945, accompanying the Miguel Matamoros conjunto to Mexico. In the late 1940's, many Cuban entertainers headed to Mexico in hopes of venturing the Mexican film industry. Matamoros decided to leave Mexico and More decided to stay. The only thing that Matamoros left behind was his suggestion to More to change his name since "bartolo" meant donkey in Mexican slang.
Though Beny More could not read music, he composed two of his big hits: Bonito Y Sabroso" and "Que Bueno Baila Usted". Beny More was also a bandleader, assembling a powerful band that included great musicians such as trumpeters "Chocolate" Armenteros and Alejandro "El Negro" Vivar. Unlike the New York Mambo bands, More's music was more "pop" compared to Machito's.
Beny More worked with Pedro Vargas, Vicentico Valdes, Rolando Laserie, Orquesta Aragon, Orlando Contreras, Tony Camargo, Dick Baxter, Otto Olivar, and his roots and influences was Pio Leiva.
More returned to Cuba in 1953 to assemble his own big band until his death. Although More never brought his band to record or perform in the United States, his musical influences were, and still are, carried fondly by New York's renown musicians. Beny More decided to stay in Cuba after the revolution.
Beny More suffered terribly from "stage fright" and before performing was known to calm his phobia by drinking as much as half a liter of liquor, straight from the bottle. Beny More's fondness of liquor ultimately lead to his unfortunate demise: cirrhosis of the liver on February 19, 1963.
Daniel Santos was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico on
February 5, 1916 and died on November 27, 1992 in Ocala, Florida.
His vocal tones were: Yearning, reflective, sulky, moody, humorous, strong, poignant, sonorous, cheerful, animated, and projective. His tones perfectly covered what he sang best: Boleros, Big Band Latino, Tropical, and folkloric (Puerto Rican).
Not only was Daniel Santos living on his own by the age of 14, he started his career at the age of 14, joining the local trio, Trio Lirico. By the mid-1930's, Daniel Santos made the move to New York and by 1938 was performing and recording with Pedro Flores' The Flores Quartet with whom he recorded most of his early hits: "Perdon", "Venganza", "Tu Serias Mia" and the categorical version of Flores' best composition: "Despedida".
Santos replaced Miguelito Valdes' post in Xavier Cugat's famous orchestra in 1942. After serving in the military, Santos began writing and recording military material and in 1946 he arrives to Cuba, spending a significant amount of time performing and writing dozens of songs. Daniel was very popular and much loved by the Cubans. He was known to party in the streets of Cuba, i.e., Paseo del Prado, then the party would continue on to Miramar and end at Marianao and probably at the prestigious Vedado. The Cubans took Daniel Santos to many venues, one of which was Radio Progreso, where he sang and even danced the "Pachanga" for a phenomenal program called "Alegrias de Hatuey". In 1948, Santos begins singing for La Sonora Matancera. His first song with La Sonora Matancera was "Bigote de Gato".
By 1956, Santos has travelled the entire South America, (returning to Puerto Rico and New York in 1954). One of his favorite countries was Guayaquil, Ecuador, which he made his home for a while. He returned to Cuba in April of 1956. By 1962, he grew heedful of Cuba's movement, specifically Cuba's policy of training children to fight in the army and left. Santos continued performing in the United States as well as in Latin America (even spending some time in jails all over the continent) up until 1991 in Mexico. It was also in that year that he suffered the first adversities from his disease while visiting friends in "El Barrio", Spanish Harlem, New York.
Daniel Santos performed and/or worked with: La Sonora Mantancera, Pedro Flores, Agustin Lara, Perez Prado, Xavier Cougat, Ramon "Moncho" Usera, Bobby Capo, Virginia Lopez, Yayo, Nelson Pinedo, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe, Miguelito Valdes, Julio Jaramillo, Orlando Contreras, Joe Valle, Beny More, Fernando Fernandez, Pepe Jara, Maria Victoria among many others. Daniel Santos performed at many venues all around the world, one of them being the famous Palladium in New York City.
Daniel Santos' demise was due to a heart attack.
