The arranger: the third point of the musical triangle: part 1

Latin Beat Magazine, April, 2007 by Frank M. Figueroa

In New York City, the emerging Hispanic community became the homebase for many musicians who came to the big city drawn by the opportunity to record and promote their careers. Some of them had to become arrangers by necessity, in order to provide charts for their first musical groups. One of them was the Spaniard José María LaCalle, who directed and wrote arrangements for bands that recorded for Columbia Records. He also led a dance orchestra in New York City in the early 1910s and the 1920s. Considered by many music historians as the first leader of a full Latin band in New York, Vicente Sigler was also an arranger. Sigler's orchestra served as training ground for many Latin musicians. Another pioneer was the Cuban pianist/composer/bandleader arranger Nilo Menéndez, best remembered as the author of Ojos Verdes (Green Eyes). His orchestra played in famous New York hotels, from 1928 to 1935.

A trumpet player born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1895 must also be included among the first Latin bandleaders in New York. His name was Augusto Coen. He served in the United States Army during World War I, and it is assumed that he played in one of the black regimental bands. At the end of the war, Coen moved to New York and began working with African-American orchestras, including the ones led by Duke Ellington, Noble Sissle and Fletcher Henderson. In the early 1930s, Coen joined Alberto Socarrás' orchestra, a band that played both Latin and American music.

In 1934, Augusto Coen formed his own band, Augusto Coen y sus Boricuas. He applied the principles learned while playing with the African-American orchestras to his new venture. His group had a big band sound created by his arrangers, José "Pin" Madera and Moncho Usera. They managed to elaborate that sound, in spite of the fact that the Coen orchestra was relatively small, consisting of one or two trumpets, three saxophones, piano, string bass, trap drums, maracas and at certain times, flute and violin. At that time, perhaps due to economic reasons, bands did not use full-time Latin percussionists.

One of the most talented Latin bandleading arrangers of those early years in New York was the Cuban flutist Alberto Socarrás. After his arrival in New York in 1927, Socarrás performed with Lew Leslie's Blackbirds, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong. Years later, in 1944, Alberto completed his studies at New York's Timothy Musical Conservatory, earning an equivalency of a doctorate in music degree. In 1934, Socarrás organized his own group that was billed as "Alberto Socarrás and his Magic Flute Orchestra." The band performed at some of the best nightclubs in New York City.

Other important Hispanic arrangers in the Big Apple during the 1930s were Pedro Via, Alfredo Brito, Enrique Bryón, Eliseo Grenet, Alberto Iznaga, Rafael Hernández, Moncho Usera, José Budet and Juan Tizol. It is worthy of note that up to that time, the arranger could not depend on his profession to earn a living. He had to work as a performing musician or in some other music-related field.