Una breve conversación con Pachito Alonso - músico cubano - TT: A brief conversation with Pachito Alonso - TA: cuban musician - Entrevista

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2001 by Luis Tamargo

Born in Santiago de Cuba and raised in Havana, the 45-year old pianist/bandleader/composer/arranger Pachito Alonso is the prodigal son of Pacho Alonso (1928-1982), one of the most popular Cuban musicians of the 1960s. Although Pacho was identified in the 1981 edition of Helio Orovio's "Diccionario de la música cubana" as the "creator of the rhythm called pilón," trumpeter Jesus Alemañy has declared that Enrique Bonné was the "real inventor" of said 1960s idiom.

In order to obtain an additional opinion regarding this controversial matter while documenting other historical facts, this LATIN BEAT scribe arranged to interview Pachito last September, during his first visit to the City of Angels, where he was accompanied by his current15-piece dance band (Los Kini Kini).(1)

LUIS TAMARGO: Both your father and grandfather had fairly unusual first names, and it appears that you were not an exception of said family tradition.

PACHITO ALONSO: Yes. My father's real name was Pascasio Alonso, and I was named Longino, like my grandfather, who was never elected mayor of Santiago because he never bothered to run for that position, but he was truly loved by most of his fellow santiagueros. He did function as sort of local councilman and was instrumental in facilitating the return of the mortal remains of Mariana Grajales(2) from the Dominican Republic to Santiago. My middle name, Rey, had to do with the fact that I was born on el Día de Reyes (Epiphany)

LT: Well, at least you were not named after one of those three Wise Men of the East! (LAUGHTER)

PA: That's right. In addition, there is a perpetual dispute regarding my dad's birthplace. Although he was born in Santiago, it has been frequently alleged that he was a native of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico), which merely happened to be the hometown of his maternal Puerto Rican grandmother.

LT: By the early 1950s, your father was already singing with Mariano Mercerón's big band.

PA: Notice that Mercerón featured the three greatest Cuban male vocalists at that time --Benny Moré, Fernando Alvarez and my dad.

LT: Who created the pilón rhythm?

PA: Enrique Bonné and my father. They had been working together for many years. Enrique is the Cuban equivalent of Puerto Rico's Tite Curet Alonso. The pilón was born as a product of the process in which coffee was traditionally grinded or pounded in Cuba's Oriente Province. Pilón is the name given to a large and hollow mallet or drop hammer which provided the sonorous sequence that gave birth to said rhythmic concept. Bonné and my dad invented it around 1960 or 1961, but the pilón boom did not occur until 1965, coinciding with the rise of Pello El Afrokán's mozambique.

LT: It appears that your father's bandleading career gravitated from the conjunto to the so-called jazzband format.

PA: Yes. He began with the conjunto called Los Bocucos, and then went on to organize Los Pachucos, a small jazzband with three saxes (alto, tenor and baritone) and two trumpets.

LT: After your father's premature demise, did you maintain the orchestral lineup?

PA: I preserved that format for a while, before I adopted the band's current brass structure (two trombones and two trumpets). In addition, I replaced the guitar with keyboards in the 1990s, when I also introduced two female vocalists, the Nuviola sisters.

FOOTNOTES:

1. For the sake of historic clarity, it must be noted that Pachito took full command of his father's band (Los Pachucos) upon his progenitor's demise, although he had been already functioning as musical director since the late 1970s.

2. Mariana Grajales was the mother of Antonio Maceo (known in Cuban history as "El Titan de Bronce") and other native patriots.