An extremely rare signed photo of Sindo Garay in fair shape measuring approximately 9 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches.Gray was one of the four greats of the trova
b. Antonio Gumersindo Garay y Garcia, April 12, 1867, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, d. July 17, 1968, Havana, Cuba. A talented guitar player, Garay was an early influence on Compay Segundo who would later declare: 'The first person I heard playing guitar was Sindo Garay. He came to my home with a guitar. I liked the guitar. ' Garay's repertoire incorporated not only the expected influence of Spanish music but was also redolent of the musical forms that came originally from France and which were heard throughout the island. Untrained though he was, Garay clearly possessed an acute ear and absorbed all the music that he heard, whether played professionally at concerts and the opera, or less formally in bars and at street corners. Among the song forms incorporated into Garay's work are boleros, criollas, guarachas and bambucos. I wrote many songs,
Bitter truths (Sindo Garay)
Guarina (Sindo Garay)
La bayamesa or [Woman from bayamesa] (Sindo Garay)
The afternoon (Sindo Garay)
Bayamian woman or [La bayamesa] (Sindo Garay)
Sea pearl (Sindo Garay)
Returns (Sindo Garay)
Fierce Torment (Sindo Garay)
The afternoon
(Sindo Garay)
The light that burns in your eyes
if you open them it dawns
when you close it seems
that the afternoon is dying.
The sorrows that mistreat me
they are so many that they run over
and they try to kill me
they crowd each other and that's why
don't kill me.
Sindo Garay (Antonio Gumersindo Garay García, 1867-1968). Cuban guitarist, composer and troubadour. Top figure of the Cuban song expression.
Sindo Garay was born in Santiago de Cuba on April 12, 1869 and with only eight years old he could be seen collaborating with the Cuban insurrection as a courier for the liberating troops. He was an outstanding student of the Santiago troubadour José Pepe Sánchez, considered by important students of Cuban musical historiography as "Father of the Cuban Trova". From his childhood he met troubadour art in the warmth of his maternal home, because it was there that the most renowned singers and guitarists from Santiago de Cuba, including Pepe Sánchez, came together to organize lively peñas.
In 1879, during a short stay in the city of Guantánamo, he composed his first bolero, "Quiéreme, trigueña", dedicated to the young María Mestre.
In 1883 he learned the trade of trapeze artist and acrobat, and excelled as an excellent swimmer of qualities that allowed him to swim across the bay of Santiago de Cuba, bringing information to the Cuban insurrection.
Those actions in no way affected his passionate interest in cultivating the troubadour song in important batches of singers. He created in 1888, with greater care and harmonic elaboration, the song "Germania", dedicated to the pianist Germán Michaelsen, then Consul of Germany in Santiago de Cuba.
His gifts as a circus artist led him in 1894 to join a company that traveled to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. During his prolific stay in the Dominican Republic, he organized a musical group, of which he named the musician Manuel Cadete and trumpeter Manuel Duarte, both Dominicans. With this group he developed an intense artistic activity that he shared with the saddler trade.
In that country, composers Emilio Artes, Julio Monzón -director of the Banda de Puerto Plata- and Alberto Vázquez were linked. In a brief stay in the city of Dajabón, on the border of Haiti and Santo Domingo, he met the Apostle José Martí when he gave a farewell speech to the Dominican people. Years later he would remember that event when writing his song "Semblanza a Martí".
In Santiago de los Caballeros (Dominican Republic), he met Petronila Reyes Zamora, whom he joined by marital ties and was the mother of his five children: Eladio Guarionex (1901), María Guarina (1902), Julio Hatuey (1906), and Gumersindo Caonao (1910). In that city he composed a good number of boleros and songs, many of which had years later a high significance in his authorial catalog: "A Mayarí"; "Before you, from the front, of fennel"; "Although the world sees you withered"; "Of thorns, flowers"; "Farewell"; "Contempt"; "Two beings who loved each other in life"; "Puerto Plata"; "You trembled with shock" and "Your face".
In 1900 he returned to the homeland to settle in his native Santiago de Cuba. At that time he shared his life as a troubadour with that of a circus artist, and on a scale made by the circus in the city of Camagüey, inspired by the Cuban fighter Evangelina Cossío, he composed the song "Evangelina".
In 1903, when he traveled to the Cuban capital for the first time, he wandered as a troubadour through some Havana neighborhoods and frequented the portals of the historic Vista Alegre café, an enclave of worship for troubadours and poets of the early twentieth century. His boleros "A Estela" date from this stage; "After twenty years"; "The afternoon"; "Sad hours" and "Dear Havana".
At that time, cylinder recording technicians and phonograph records attended Havana; This is how some boleros and songs by Sindo Garay were recorded, performed by him and by other troubadours.
Between 1908 and 1909 he composed the boleros "Labios de grana", dedicated to Carmen Granados, and "Yarini", inspired by the figure of the legendary Havana pimp Alberto Yarini. His bolero "Los tabaqueros" also dates from that stage, a tribute to the historic union strike that was repressed by the government.
In 1910 he recorded for the American record label RCA Víctor, but some differences with the management of that house made him cancel his contracts. By then he composed his famous creole "La perla marina", which was not released until 1913, in a successful performance of the capital Martí theater.
In 1912 Sindo, who worked as an acrobat in the legendary Circus Pubillones, composed his famous key "A Maceo", inspired by the figure of Lieutenant General of the Liberation Army Antonio Maceo.
In that period, the political and social stability of Cuba suffered acute tensions due to the claim of equal social rights for black Cubans. The actions peaked in the insurrectional uprising known as the Movement of the Color Independents, bloody repressed by the army. Those events significantly affected the great troubadour from Santiago, who immediately downloaded his patriotic feelings on many of his creations on his guitar.
In 1913 he released his inspired boleros "Sindo saber" in the old café La Diana; "My blackberry"; "Without your caresses"; "Pride" and the beautiful Creole "A Parlá", inspired by the legendary Cuban aviator Agustín Parlá. In "La Diana", Sindo had the opportunity to meet the great pianist and dancer Antonio María Romeu, who by then, some commented, had lost his mind. Those comments inspired his anthology bolero "El loco mayor".
In that same year he traveled to Mexico as part of the cast of the Pubillones circus and established contacts with some composers and artists such as the famous tenor Mario Talavera, as well as prominent Yucatecan troubadours, until he left his mark on that peninsula.
Upon his return to Cuba, he continued to earn a living as an acrobat in the Lowande, Tatalí, Silvani and other circuses that toured the provinces with more or less success. At the end of these trips he could be found in some clubs led by the composer and musicologist Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes and the composer José Marín Varona; Both musicians had a deep admiration for the work of the great oriental troubadour, and they even transcribed some of their pieces for the publishers Excelsior Music Co. and Typographic Musical; with this last one Sindo printed the bolero "La Alondra".
During his new stay in Havana, around 1915, he suffered serious economic difficulties with his family, and decided to return to Santiago de Cuba. Everything indicates that, disappointed, he conceived his boleros "Amargas verdades", with verses by Pepe Elizondo, and "Adiós a La Habana", whose texts generated serious controversies with the also troubadours Manuel Corona and José Cardona, who immediately riposted into boleros and songs of their inspiration, to what they considered an ingratitude of the oriental troubadour to the city of Havana.
After his departure from Havana, with his guitar on his shoulder, he gave reins to a historic wandering, started in the city of Pinar del Río, which lasted to the most remote places in the east of the country. He met in the city of Cienfuegos with the great Spanish guitarist and concert player Vicente Gelabert, and from that meeting arose the admiration of the great European artist for the work and style of performer of the oriental troubadour.
In 1918 he settled with his wife and children in the city of Bayamo, where he composed his famous bolero "La bayamesa", published on some phonographic records as "Mujer bayamesa".
In 1920 he decided to return to Havana; by then the country was immersed in the electoral processes that led Alfredo Zayas to the presidency. In the course of this political process, he was invited to sing and play with his son Guarionex at one of the parties organized by the candidate; There he sang for the first time his bolero The Prophecy, with a sharp criticism of the not honest handling of Cuban politics of those times.
Permanently settled in Havana, his temperament as a restless troubadour temporarily took him to Cienfuegos at a time when the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, then hired in Cuba to make ten presentations, was about to debut at the Terry Theater. Inexplicably, he managed to pass to the dressing room of the Italian divo and there, with his guitar and songs, he delighted the members of the company, including Caruso himself. Upon his return to Havana, with his overflowing inspiration, he created the boleros "There are still Indians", "Descent", "Mermaid eyes", "It is already late", "From yesterday to today"; "From afar", "The hurricane and the palm"; they are "Life for the country" and the rumba "Lupisamba or Yuca y ñame".
In the 1930s, some of his most famous boleros were premiered at the Cubanacán cabaret and the Norma Theater, and he was presented with his son Guarionex by the Sociedad Pro Arte Musical at the aristocratic Auditorium theater.
In 1940 the Corporate Council of Education, Health and Charity published an album with twelve of his compositions. Sometime later, the Havana City Council conferred on him the commemorative medal for the Centennial of the Birth of Antonio Maceo.
In 1946, Professor Argeliers León invited him to illustrate a Cuban music course at the University of Havana. In that year he recorded part of his work on one hundred and fifty acetate plates in the studios of the RHC Cadena Azul station. In the same year he was declared Adoptive Son of Bayamo, and in that environment he released his anthological song Los Bayameses.
In the course of 1959, after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, he composed his last work, symbolically titled "Lyrical Testament"; thereafter it enjoyed recognition and decorous status. The musicologist Odilio Urfé invited him in 1962 to participate in the First Cuban Popular Music Festival, where he received recognition from the Cuban people. On the occasion of its centenary, the Arts and Entertainment Union developed a cycle of tributes and recognitions.
He died in Havana on July 17, 1968.
Bibliography
Adam, Orestes: "Things I lived with Sindo Garay". in Revolución y Cultura Magazine, no.8: pp. 50-51, Havana, August, 1989.
Álvarez Ríos, María: "Honors and disappointments of Sindo Garay". in Bohemia Magazine, Havana, April 17, 1955.
Fernández, Olga: "Sindo Garay, the most troubadour". in Revolución y Cultura Magazine, year 5: pp. 50-53; Havana, May, 1987.
González-Rubiera, Vicente: Unreleased recordings of interviews carried out in the eighties.
León, Carmela de: Sindo Garay: memories of a troubadour. Cuban Letters Publishing, Havana, 1990.
Muguercia, Alberto: "Sindo Garay. A daring of the devil". Our Musicians Series, no. 3, «José Martí» National Library, Havana, 1985.
Pérez Sanjurjo, Elena: History of Cuban Music. The Modern Poetry, INC, Miami, 1986.
Urfé, Odilio: "Notes for an assessment of the great Cuban troubadour Sindo Garay". in El Caimán Barbudo Magazine, no. 167: pp. 16-18; Havana, October, 1976.
Antonio Gumersindo Garay y García, well-known as Sindo Garay (Santiago de Cuba, April 12 1867 - July 17 1968) was a Cuban musician that, even without having academic formation, he has managed to win an excellent place in the traditional trova.
He was creator of more than 600 works that depict the Cuban idiosyncrasy; among his themes he highlight his admiration for the homeland, landscapes, women and love.
Sindo Garay
Among his creations we find: Bitter Truths, Bayamian Woman, Guarina, The Afternoon, Pearl, Return, and Fierce Torment.
Several of his creations have a political content.
During his childhood I acted like link of the mambí colonel José Maceo.
Also for then he knew to José Martí, for what he would include in his repertoire the poem Semblanza de Martí, based on the meeting that he had with the same one.
Outstanding and noted Sindo Garay died in the second half from the XX century with 101 year old.
Antonio Gumersindo Garay y García, known as Sindo Garay was a Cuban musician who, even without academic training, knew how to earn an outstanding place in the traditional trova.
He was the creator of more than 600 works that portray the Cuban idiosyncrasy; His themes include his admiration for his homeland, landscapes, women and love. Among his creations we find: Bitter Truths, Bayamian Woman, Guarina, The Afternoon, Pearl, Return and Fierce Torment.
Content
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1 Biographical synthesis
2 His influence
3 Works
4 Sources
Biographical synthesis
Sindo Garay was born on April 12, 1867, in Santiago de Cuba. At home, very poor, however, the charm of music was never lacking. "In my house there was always one, two and even three guitars, not counting those of mom and dad."
The troubadour even remembers that his mother slept him as a child singing La Bayamesa, de Céspedes, Castillo and Fornaris. Years later, in 1918, Sindo would bequeath Cuban musical history his own Bayamesa Woman.
In his childhood years, at the height of the first war against the Spanish colony, more than once he carried important messages from the Cuban patriots. The anecdote is famous that as a teenager he crossed the bay of Santiago de Cuba, one of the largest in the country, several times, with orders and documents from Cuban workers against Spain.
Sindo Garay
One day he dared to take the guitar of one of the habitual assistants to the discharges troveras of his home and began to try to imitate what he saw his elders do. A couple of scolding and a couple of tries until a knock on the door interrupts him. He was precisely the owner of the guitar, nothing more and nothing less than Pepe Sánchez, who immediately learned of the "robbery", wanted to listen to the boy's discoveries. Those minimal chords aroused his emotion and a hug sealed the certainty that an artist had been born.
"With how great Pepe Sánchez was, and I, a bladder, could touch the fibers of his sensibility! He was the only teacher I had in my life (...) he has to appear as a precursor to the Cuban trova."
The years have proved this location right.
At age 16 the first guitar would arrive, given away by his brother. At the same age, he would begin to self-literate by not being able to answer a girl's love letter. The songs had already appeared; At just 12 years old, the first "sindada" was born on the banks of the Guaso River: a musical quatrain to remember a woman. About his life it is worth saying that Sindo learned all kinds of circus stunts and that more than once he earned a living with that work. On the other hand, he never learned a musical note, however his works have been considered by prestigious as lessons in harmony and composition and he received and receives many accolades for his incredible ability as a creator. As a joke, the troubadour said that his name was a sign of his musical ignorance: Sin-Do, and that sin Do composed.
A life as long as this man had, 101 years despite the rum and the smoke, leaves great memories. Sindo Garay met many important personalities. As a very young boy, Guillermón Moncada used to sit him on his legs to hear him sing along with his sister, very young too. And throughout his life he met among others the great violinist Brindis de Salas, the tenor Caruso, Julio Antonio Mella and is probably the only one who had the opportunity to shake the hands of José Martí and later those of Fidel Castro. Of his many creations it would be worth leaving a couple of notes on some of them.
La Bayamesa, a title widely used by various Cuban authors in countless works, is perhaps his best-known song. Sindo says that after a night of serenade, when he woke up at a friend's house, in whose patio there was a wall still blackened by the Bayamo fire, he was struck by inspiration and right there, on a simple cartridge paper he wrote down the verses of his immortal work. Guitar through would come later the melody. Paradoxically, the premiere of this song was for the box office and the pianist of the Bayamo cinema-theater, the only attendees that night.
In July 1968, exactly on the 17th, the greatest troubadour of this land of minstrels died at the age of 101. The trova festival of that year was dedicated to his memory and his Bayamesa repeatedly resounded in the voices of many different troubadours. At his impressive funeral, cigars and cigars were lit because Sindo had asked for it.
There is nothing like feeding the memory of those who left the work of life well done. Tributes and calendars are not necessary to let respect float and remember those who planted our history and culture. Sindo Garay must have rum in hand and song at the ready strolling serenades anywhere in the times. Thanks to his work we have one more step from which to continue inventing melodies, a light that does not stop burning in many eyes. And since then, every time a guitar with poetry playing between its strings, some mischievous troubadour smile lights up after the air and takes a drink to the trova's health.
His influence
Unaware of the most elementary formal technical notions of music, he created, however, musical works considered
Sindo's compositions are jewels of traditional Cuban songwriting..jpg
perfect. The oriental bolero had its best exponent in Sindo, since it imposed its peculiar style with the scratching of the guitar strings to close the musical phrases and the rhythmic base with the so-called Cuban cinquillo.
Like almost all the cultists of the trova, Sindo also worked the song and did it with rhythmic freedom, although he has to his credit some other creole, guaracha, some bambuco influenced by the Colombian work, and when he spoke of his peculiar style, I he was referring precisely to his original way of handling these forms.
An overwhelming majority of Sindo's songs and boleros cannot even be imagined apart from the second voice of the melody, or the 'second' as he called it. He said that the third parties 'fell alone', he always looked for solutions starting from the sixth interval. If we consider the freedom with which he handled the fundamental basses on the guitar, it is not strange that harmonic modulations of the most contemporary ones occurred. Undoubtedly, as Stravinsky said, when a creator is both an effective interpreter, he is in a good position to invoice his work as he conceived it. Such was the case of our troubadour. Sindo's handling of nuances and the dynamics of his own creations is another of his peculiar features.
Influences of opera are also recognized in his music. Due to the reference dates, at the end of the 19th century, it cannot be another opera than the Italian one, brought to Cuba by the French emigration, or by the companies that passed through the current Teatro Oriente, in Santiago de Cuba, when Sindo was a teenager. On the other hand, in one way or another, something drank from the source of the lied: in songs like Germania or Guarina you breathe a certain breath from the cultured songs of the romantic and post-romantic Europeans.
Sindo Garay was a popular genius, and the most incredible thing is that all the Cuban music that oozes his work he learned in life, he made it in his head, his throat and his hands on the guitar. For him, a ruled paper with musical notes had no more meaning than that of a mysterious indecipherable hieroglyph. Only from his inordinate sensitivity and ability to synthesize and rework sound events, could he, from his ignorance of formal musical technique, do the works he did.
The juggler, who had been singing to his homeland for 89 years, has a congregation of troubadours and friends every July 17 before the sober pantheon in the Bayamo necropolis. There we left new flowers on the slab, and in the air, the notes of the song that would immortalize that city, its land, its people, its work.
Plays
He made frequent use of the colors, in a way as correct as surprising. He formed with Villalón, Ruiz and Corona, the group of the greats of the trova. In 1928 he traveled to Paris, along with Rita Montaner and other Cuban musicians, there he spent three months doing Havana programs. He recorded infinity of discs. His lyrics reveal poetic beauty. It was a remarkable second voice. He received countless tributes and recognitions after the Triumph of the Revolution. Among his most important compositions are "The afternoon", "Pearl of the sea", "Rendered", "Lips of red", "Clave a Maceo", "Returns", "La baracoesa", "Goodbye to Havana", "Woman bayamesa ”,“ La lark ”,“ The hurricane and the palm ”,“ Fermania ”,“ Rayos de oro ”,“ Tardes grises ”,“ Ojos de sirena ”and“ Guarina ”.
His talent as a troubadour made him climb to the top of traditional trova in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba and the world. The Excelencias Group invites you to learn more about the life and work of musician Antonio Gumersindo Garay y Garcia, known as Sindo Garay. Click on Santiago de Cuba: A City of 500 Years He was born on April 12, 1867 at the hot land and it looked like if he would live forever, death wouldn't reach him. Sindo Garay lived 101 years, a genuine troubadour that sang to his homeland, women, landscapes and the most universal of all feelings: love. Sindo Garay lived in a humble environment, but music was always around him. He always recalled how his mother used to sing “La Bayamesa”, a theme that inspired him 1918 to write “Mujer Bayamesa”. The list of songs written by Sindo Garay includes such titles as “Amargas Verdades”, “Labios de Grana”, "Clave a Maceo", "Guarina", "Ojos de Sirena", "La Tarde", "La Alondra", "El Huracán y la Palma", "Perla Marina", "Retorna" "Tardes Grises" and "Tormento Fiero " His works are described as valuable lessons of harmony and composition, and they have been praised by the critics. Gumersindo didn't have an academic musical education, however, I have learned circus acrobatics and that was how I have made a living in different moments of his life. Sindo Garay wasn't a tall man, but he was big through the lyrics of his songs. He always loved walking and used to show up in any bar, square or family party and delight people with his music. On the other hand, in the late 19th century I have traveled to Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico and some other South American countries. I have visited Paris in 1928, along with Rita Montaner and other Cuban musicians. Beyond music, his family was one of Garay's passions. He had five children with his wife, Petronila Reyes Zamora, and he gave them indigenous names: Guarionex, Guarina, Hatuey, Caonao and Anacaona respectively. Sindo Garay had an exceptional professor: Pepe Sanchez. One day he took the guitar of the Father of Latin American Bolero and I played some notes. That was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. This long-lived man had the opportunity to meet such figures as Guillermon Moncada, violinist Brindis de Salas, tenor Caruso, Julio Antonio Mella, Jose Marti and Fidel Castro. The great Sindo Garay passed away on July 17, 1968. Pepe Sanchez. One day he took the guitar of the Father of Latin American Bolero and I played some notes. That was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. This long-lived man had the opportunity to meet such figures as Guillermon Moncada, violinist Brindis de Salas, tenor Caruso, Julio Antonio Mella, Jose Marti and Fidel Castro. The great Sindo Garay passed away on July 17, 1968. Pepe Sanchez. One day he took the guitar of the Father of Latin American Bolero and I played some notes. That was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. This long-lived man had the opportunity to meet such figures as Guillermon Moncada, violinist Brindis de Salas, tenor Caruso, Julio Antonio Mella, Jose Marti and Fidel Castro. The great Sindo Garay passed away on July 17, 1968.
Sindo Garay
Sindo Garay (born Antonio Gumersindo Garay Garcia; Santiago de Cuba, 12 April 1867 - Havana, 17 July 1968) was Cuban trova musician. He was taught by Pepe Sánchez. Garay was one of the four greats of the trova. He was Spanish and Arawakan descendant.
Life & work
Garay was the most outstanding composer of trova songs, and his best have been sung and recorded many times. Perla marina, Adios a La Habana, Mujer bayamesa, El huracan y la palma, Guarina and many others are now part of Cuba's heritage. Garay was also musically illiterate - in fact, he only taught himself the alphabet at 16 - but in his case not only were scores transcribed by others, but there are recordings as well.
Guarionex and Sindo Garay, 1906
For a long period he sang in a duo with his eldest son Guarionex; he had two other sons and a daughter, and gave them all Indian names.
In the 1890s Garay got involved in the Cuban War of Independence, and decided to stay in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) would be a good idea. It was, and he came back with a wife. Garay settled in Havana in 1906, and in 1926 joined Rita Montaner and others to visit Paris, spending three months there singing his songs. He broadcast on radio, made recordings and survived into modern times. He used to say "Not many men have shaken hands with both Jose Marti and Fidel Castro!" Carlos Puebla, whose life spanned the old and the new trova, told a good joke about him: "Sindo celebrated his 100th birthday several times - in fact, whenever he was short of money!" [1] [2]