Eliseo Grenet
| Eliseo Grenet | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
June 12, 1893 Havana |
| Died | December 4, 1950 (aged 57) |
Eliseo Grenet Sánchez (12 June 1893 in Havana – 4 December 1950) was a Cuban pianist and a leading composer/arranger of the day. He composed music for stage shows and films, and some famous Cuban dance music. Eliseo was one of three musical brothers, all composers, the others being Emilio ('Neno', 1901–1941) and Ernesto (1908–1981). Emilio went on composing even after having an arm and a leg bitten off by a shark in 1930; Ernesto was a drummer who became leader of the Tropicana's orchestra.
Eliseo studied music under Mercedes Valenzuela and Leandro Simón Guergué, the father of Moisés Simons. In 1905 he played piano in the silent film theatre La Caricatura, and in 1909 directed the orchestra of the Politeama Habanero theatre, which mostly showed zarzuelas. Later he joined the company of Regino López at the Teatro Cubano.
In 1925 Grenet founded a jazz band which played in the cabaret Montmatre and the Jockey Club. The line-up included Grenet (piano); Manolo Castro (alto sax); José Ramón Betancourt (tenor sax); Pedro Mercado (trumpet); Jorge Bolet (piano sub); Enrique Santiesteban (percussion and singer). In 1927 came the premiere of the zarzuela La Niña Rita, o La Habana de 1830 at the Teatro Regina, with music by Grenet and Ernesto Lecuona. In this zarzuela, Grenet's number, the tango-congo Ay, Mamá Inéz, became a huge hit, and remains popular today and is often heard at wedding receptions. Its origins lie in a comparsa number of 1868, and in its new guise became one of the signature numbers for the vedette Rita Montaner. In 1930 he set a number of Nicolas Guillén's poems Motivos del son to music.
Grenet left Cuba in 1932 after falling foul of some of Gerardo Machado's henchmen, for the lyric of his Lamento cubano, which had the line:
He returned after Machado was forced out of office. Whilst abroad in Spain he directed the orchestra for the operetta La virgen morena, in Barcelona. Next, in Paris, he directed the same work. In Paris, too, he played piano at La Cueva, the nightclub he partly owned, in the resident band of Julio Cueva. There he joined his brother Ernesto, who played percussion. It was here that playing La comparsa de los congos, that he realized the potential of this carnival rhythm. It has been said that he introduced the conga to America, and this may or may not be true. The Lecuona Cuban Boys, a touring band, were writing and playing congas at the same time.
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