Ernesto Lecuona
b. August 1896, Guanabacoa, Cuba, d. 1963. Pianist Ernesto Lecuona was one of the most internationally famous composers to come out of Cuba. His two brothers and two sisters all became musicians. One brother was a violinist, the rest played piano. Ernesto received his first piano lessons from his elder sister and became a prodigy. He gave his first public performance at the age of five and had his first composition published at 11. He graduated from Havana's National Conservatory of Music at the age of 15 and taught piano and voice. At 17, he played in concert at the Aeolian Hall, New York City. In the early '20s, Lecuona continued his musical studies in France, where he studied under Maurice Ravel. 
Ernesto has composed over 400 Cuban tunes. His composition Siboney— published in the USA by Leo Feist in 1929—became a Latin standard, covered by numerous artists. His other popular compositions, included: Maria La O (Maria My Own), c.1931; Para Vigo Me Voy (Say Si Si), 1933; and La Comparsa. He also attempted classical type pieces like Malagueña (1927) and Andalucia/The Breeze And I (1930). 
Lecuona had his own band, originally called his Orquesta Cubana, that performed popular Cuban music. Curiously, he was not the pianist with the band. This slot was filled by the classically trained Armando Fichin Oréfiche (b. 1911, Havana, Cuba), who was also a composer and arranger. Their concerts comprised of Ernesto performing his own pieces for solo piano and the band playing material from their repertoire of popular Cuban numbers, many of which were written by Lecuona and Oréfiche. In 1934, he was medically advised to return to Cuba after suffering from severe pneumonia while touring in Spain with the band. The band was renamed the Lecuona Cuban Boys, and under the musical leadership of Oréfiche and trumpeter/guitarist/composer/arranger Ernesto Jaruco Vázquez, they continued to tour Europe extensively with considerable success until the outbreak of World War II. Collections of recordings they made in Europe during this period have been issued. During the war the band toured Latin America. In 1946, Armando Oréfiche and his tenor saxophone and bongo playing brother, Adalberto Chiquito Oréfiche, left after a leadership dispute and formed the Havana Cuban Boys. Albums by Armando Oréfiche and his Havana Cuban Boys were released in the UK on the Decca and Felsted labels. Their RUMBA COLORA on the Panart label, featured Afro Cuban Bola de Nieve or Snow Ball (b. Ignacio Villa, 1913, Cuba, d. 1971, Cuba) on piano and lead vocal, who, in addition to being a popular cabaret artist with Cuban cafe society, was a Professor of Mathematics. Ten years after Bola's death, the Cuban state label, Areito, released Bola de Nieve In Memoriam, a collection of recordings made for Radio Havana that included four of his own compositions and a version of Babalú, written by Ernesto's niece, Margarita Lecuona. 
Margarita was a mezzo soprano and a prolific composer. Her two most famous compositions, Babalú and Tabu, have been covered by numerous Latin artists and bands. The legendary Cuban vocalist, Miguelito Valdés, came to be known as Mr Babalú because he sang and recorded the song so many times. Ernesto's daughter, Ernestina Lecuona, sang with the Lecuona Cuban Boys for a while and also with Armando Oréfiche and his Havana Cuban Boys.