Miguel Matamoros
Composer, guitarist and singer from Santiago de Cuba: with the Trío Matamoros, Miguel Matamoros mixed the bolero with the son. His Lágrimas negras and Son de la loma are among the best-known Cuban songs.
About
Miguel Matamoros was born on 8 May 1894 in the Los Hoyos neighbourhood of Santiago de Cuba, and died there on 15 April 1971. He contributed a great deal to the development of the son, the music of rural eastern Cuba.
Trío Matamoros
In 1925 he started a trio in Santiago with Rafael Cueto (guitar) and Siro Rodríguez (maracas and claves). At first it was called Trío Oriental. In 1928 it became Trío Matamoros, because another group already used the old name. That same year they made their first record.
- Bolero and son: the trio mixed the two, and became popular in Cuba and abroad.
- Well-known songs: El que siembra su maíz (his first hit), Lágrimas negras (a bolero-son recorded in hundreds of versions) and Son de la loma.
Conjunto Matamoros
In the 1940s he started the Conjunto Matamoros in Havana. A conjunto could sound fuller than the earlier sextetos and septetos. The group made more than a hundred recordings, sometimes with singers such as Benny Moré and Carlos Embale. Benny Moré sang with Matamoros from 1945 to 1947.
In March 1960 the group played for the Cuban public for the last time. Matamoros retired soon after.
📝 Sources
Cuban Dances Originating in Havana
Havana, the cultural heartbeat of Cuba, played a central role in the creation and evolution of several iconic Cuban dances. Some were born directly in the capital, while others were transformed there into the forms we know today.
Lees meer >Bolero dance is the slowest, most intimate expression of Cuban partner dance — a close embrace, subtle movement, and complete surrender to the emotional weight of the music.
Lees meer >The Cuban bolero is one of the great romantic song traditions of the world — slow, intimate, and deeply emotional. It is entirely distinct from the Spanish bolero (a fast 3/4 dance) and emerged in Cuba as a vehicle for the island's most heartfelt lyric expression.
Lees meer >Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.
Lees meer >Santiago de Cuba, in the far east of the island, is Cuba's second city and one of its oldest — founded in 1515 and the capital of the colony from 1522 to 1589. Closer to Haiti and Jamaica than to Havana, it is the most Afro-Caribbean city in Cuba and the cradle of son, trova and bolero.
Lees meer >Maracas are a pair of rattles — originally hollow gourds filled with seeds — that go back to the Taíno, the Indigenous people of the Caribbean. In Cuban music they add rhythm and texture rather than melody, above all in son, where they are often played by one of the singers.
Lees meer >The Spanish guitar arrived in Cuba with the colonizers and became the seed of Cuban music, blending with African rhythms. From inspiring the tres to shaping son, conjuntos, and even modern timba, its influence runs through every note of Cuba’s musical history.
Lees meer >When son first hit Havana, the sexteto format (6 instruments, no brass) was the model: guitar, tres, bongó, claves, maracas, and bass. These groups were lighter, closer to the rural sound but polished for urban dance halls. Famous example: Sexteto Habanero.
Lees meer >Adding a trumpet turned the sexteto into a septeto, giving it more projection for bigger venues and open-air dances. The trumpet also added space for improvisation, call-and-response with the singer, and a more “urban” flavor. Example: Septeto Nacional (Ignacio Piñeiro).
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