Pacho Alonso, born on August 22, 1927, in the neighborhood of La Trocha in Santiago de Cuba and was a singer and conductor who is credited with creating the musical form “pilón” in collaboration with percussionist and composer Enrique Bonne.
He made his debut on the Oriental Radio Network under the name Oscar Alonso. In 1946 he traveled to Havana and at the age of 18 he met José Antonio Méndez, who introduced him to the Mil Diez Station. However, Pacho returned to Santiago to conclude his teaching studies at the Normal School for Teachers in this city where he graduated.
In 1946, the pianist, reciter, and teacher of English, and also from Santiago, Luis Carbonell, worked as artistic director of several amateur programs at CMKC Station. Stimulated by him, Pacho Alonso, who at that time was eighteen years old, appeared on a program singing the bolero ‘Pity of you’, with which he obtained one of his first triumphs as a singer.
From 1951 to 1954, Pacho Alonso, together with maestro Mercerón, carried out extensive work as an orchestra singer, performing in countless popular dances, cabarets, and in different programs on the Oriental Radio Network and on other stations in his hometown.
His first group founded in 1952: Pacho Alonso and his Modernistas. From the first moments, he impregnated the group with him as a fundamental characteristic, his marked accentuation, eminently from Santiago. With such recognition from the dancing public, he obtained his first triumphs on the stages of nightclubs such as El Copa Club and San Pedro del Mar.
In the mid-1950s he recorded his first album: Cha-Cha-Cha de la Reina, a successful creation by Enrique Bonne accompanied by the Mercerón orchestra.
In 1957, Pacho appeared for the first time on television for a week with his group on the program “El Show del Mediodía”, on channel 6 of CMQ TV. That same year he recorded for the GEMA albums the numbers entitled Meñoñón (son montuno) and Serenata de Haiti.
With that firm decision at the end of the fifties, Pacho settled in Havana, and as the first step in 1958, he restructured his group under the name of Pacho Alonso and his Bocucos. In the 1950s, Alonso sang with Benny Moré and Fernando Álvarez, a trio popularly known as “Los Tres Mosqueteros.”
In 1964, composer Enrique Bonne, a great friend of Pacho, proposed to him the incorporation of his new rhythm called pilón. This modality, with antecedents in the eastern organ, takes its name from the rustic instrument where the peasants ground coffee. The pylon was the pinnacle of success for the Alonso-Bonne duet. From the first moments, the rhythm caught between the members of Los Bocucos,
which with their touches and suggestions finished outlining the Ritmo Pilón, together with the invaluable contributions in the field and the dance created by Pacho Alonso himself None of the variants later developed by them, such as the Simalé and the UPA UPA, although they were very popular, they achieved that level of popularity.
In 1967 Pacho decided to form a new group called Pacho Alonso y sus Pachucos, which was characterized by a more contemporary timbral sound to which Pacho added a new repertoire.