ÑICO MEMBIELA - CANTA PARA TI LP

 A nice album to set the mood at your next event.  Per Discogs:  Cuban bolero singer. Born in Zulueta, Provincia De Villa Clara, Cuba on December 3rd, 1913. Died in Miami, Florida on July 13th, 1998. This renowned singer and songwriter from a young age played boleros as a troubadour in his hometown and already in 1942 established himself as a professional singer in Havana. He initially didn't have much success but recorded 6 songs in 1951. Then in 1954 he joined the Orquesta Cheo Belen Puig and recorded two songs that opened up his road to fame. As a teenager he learned to play guitar and went to Cienfuegos with his family. Ñico Membiela's father owned the hardware store La Bomba, in Calzada De Dolores, between the streets Gloria and Industria, a few doors down from the residence of Adolfina Lazo, godmother of trova music in Cienfuegos. Adolfina and Ñico had a great friendship. Ñico used to walk with his guitar on the streets serenading or was received at a home to offer his troubadour performances. The young and very thin Ñico Membiela had poor health since early youth, but had many friends and girls who admired him and they would listen to the songs that he incorporated to his repertoire. Although his career was illustrious, he never had great fame in the long run, only living and performing in the shadows of more popular Bolero singers. In 1963 he performed in Mexico and moved to the United States, where he lived and continued making music until his death at age 85 in 1998. ENJOY!!!

https://bestfile.io/stOLEWq9EpakL7f/file

XAVIER CUGAT AHO - VIVA CUGAT! LP 61

REPOST and ADD ON:  O.K. setting the record straight here as I had just reposted for last week when Cuba's Perez Prado named Xavier as his main influence.  Well it turns out I was sittin' on a double album of all his great's as shown right above which is a goldmine of his tunes made famous like:  La Bamba, Guantanamera, Soul Sauce and Adios for example.  Per Discogs:  Real Name Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeu

Profile: Born: January 1, 1900, Girona, Spain, Died: October 27, 1990, Barcelona, Spain.

Catalan-Cuban-American bandleader whom many consider to have been very influential in incorporating Latin music into popular music in the United States. Perez Prado followed in Cugat's footsteps.

Cugat was born in Girona, in Catalonia (Spain). He emmigrated with his family to Cuba when he was five, and trained as a classical violinist, playing with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana. On 6 July 1915, Cugat and his family arrived in New York. Entering the world of show business, he played with a band called “The Gigolos” during the tango craze. Later, he went to work for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist, and his caricatures were later nationally syndicated.

In the late 1920s, as sound began to be used in films, he put together another tango band that had some success in early short musical films. By the early 1930s, he began appearing with his group in feature films, and Cugat took his band to New York for the 1931 opening of Waldorf Astoria Hotel and it became the hotel's resident band. One of his trademarks was to hold a small Chihuahua dog while he waved his baton with the other arm. He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next thirty years, alternating hotel and radio dates with movie appearances in films such as Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and Neptune's Daughter (1949).

In 1940, he recorded the song Perfidia with singer Miguelito Valdés which became a big hit. Cugat followed trends closely, making records for the conga, the mambo, the cha-cha-cha, and the twist when each was in fashion. His first marriage was to Rita Montaner, his second to Carmen Castillo (1929 – 1946), his third to Lorraine Allen (1947 – 28 April 1952), and his fourth to singer Abbe Lane in 1952. He and Lane performed together until their divorce in 1964. He married salsa dancer Charo on 7 August 1966. The two were the first couple to marry in the newly opened Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. Cugat did not lose sleep over artistic compromises: “I would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve.” Cugat died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona in his native Catalonia, Spain.

https://bestfile.io/XIbNyvawXxz3xWf/file

CELIA CRUZ - EL CARNAVAL DE LA VIDA CD 03

 Fresh after my post of the 'Mambo Kings' soundtrack a couple of weeks ago where I noted how much she stood out from the rest on the compilation although all were very good, here I find one of her disks at Goodwill and it is very good.  After all she is known as the 'Queen of Salsa' with her shouts of 'Azucar! (Sugar) during songs.  She has more than 70 albums and rightly so being the biggest singer in Cuba by the end of the 50's!      https://gofile.io/d/2iBPjs

VA - CUBAN DANCE FAVORITES - Played by The Riverside Orch LP

 This one from Goodwill in pretty good shape.  Enjoy!       https://gofile.io/d/dhHVka

PEREZ PRADO - Great Mambos also other Latin America Favorites LP

Popularized the Mambo in the fifties.  Though born in Cuba, became a Mexican citizen where in Mexico City his son is conducting a tribute orchestra to this day.
LINK REPOSTED 9-10-25:  https://bestfile.io/en/ohZ6C641PhYZ8wU/file

PASODOBLES Y DANZAS DE ANDALUCIA LP

First of three rips I did for Antonio from Rocketstar Records--as a favor for lending me some vinyl over the past couple weeks.  He is Cuban American and received these from a customer.
https://www65.zippyshare.com/v/wePlBdWp/file.html

VENANCIO CERVERA - SALSA SABROSA LP 80

One of three I ripped for Antonio from our sponsor store.
https://www65.zippyshare.com/v/OZyV8Pj2/file.html

CUBAN FESTIVAL - Trad. Dance Music Of Cuba LP mid-50s

Antonio the Cuban-American owner of Rocketstar records our sponsor store here handed me three vinyl he received in that I converted for him and returned so am posting the last of three here.
https://www65.zippyshare.com/v/ywQn87Wf/file.html