Sexteto Habanero

Sexteto Habanero is one of the first and most important son ensembles — their recordings from the 1920s and 1930s are among the foundation documents of Cuban son, and their evolution into a septeto (with the addition of Félix Chapottín's trumpet) marks a key step in the genre's development.

About

Founded in Havana in 1920, Sexteto Habanero was part of the first wave of son groups to emerge from the Havana neighborhoods where the genre had been developing for decades after arriving from Oriente. The sexteto format — tres (Cuban guitar), guitar, double bass, bongó, claves, maracas, plus two or three vocalists who also played percussion — was the standard configuration for son ensembles of the era, and groups like Sexteto Habanero helped codify that instrumentation.

The son they played was elegant but rooted in the street. The structure — a verse section (largo) followed by the call-and-response montuno section — was already established, but Sexteto Habanero's recordings show the form in its mature 1920s state: clean tres playing, interlocked percussion, and the montuno section's interplay between lead singer and coro that would remain the structural core of Cuban popular music for a century.

In 1927 trumpeter Félix Chapottín joined the group. This addition transformed them into what was effectively a septeto — a sexteto plus trumpet — and the addition of the trumpet to the son ensemble was a decisive development. The trumpet provided a melodic voice that could play harmonized riffs over the montuno, engage in dialogue with the vocalist, and add harmonic richness to arrangements that had previously relied entirely on tres and guitar for melodic content. Sexteto Nacional (founded the same year) had already begun working with the septeto format; Sexteto Habanero's adoption of it confirmed it as the standard.

Chapottín himself went on to become one of the most important figures in Cuban music history — a trumpeter whose style, rooted in the son tradition but technically accomplished, influenced Cuban brass playing for generations. His time with Sexteto Habanero was an early chapter in a long career.

The group's recordings on the Victor and Columbia labels from the late 1920s and early 1930s are primary sources for understanding what Cuban son sounded like in its classic period — before the mambo transformation of the 1940s, before the charanga adaptations, before the international commercialization of the genre. They are essential listening for anyone studying Cuban music history.

Key Recordings

  • Early Victor recordings, late 1920s
  • Columbia recordings, early 1930s
  • Various recordings preserved on historical compilation albums