Olga Guillot and the fine art of the popular song

Latin Beat Magazine, August, 2004 by Francisco J. Ojeda

The true stature of an artist is appreciable only when the passage of time allows for proper focusing by creating sufficient distance between the critical lens and the artist's legacy. Any categorization made without the benefits of the clear view that only time provides, runs the risk of eventually showing itself as having been premature and short-sighted. In the case of Olga Guillot, we have more than we need for a proper assessment of artistic stature, We have a musical career that spans more than 60 years, a discography that includes more than 60 long-playing records, the prestige of having worked in 16 films, and the evidence of long-standing popularity attested to by the possession of ten gold records, the keys to more than 30 cities around the world, the honor of having one of her dresses on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History in Washington, DC, and a myriad of trophies and official recognitions awarded by governments and organizations from around the globe. As if all this were not enough, there is something perhaps more important for a genuine artist, and that is a distinctive and highly original style that has gone on to influence generations of subsequent vocalists, and the uninterrupted recognition of her worth by critics and the public alike. By any maginable standard, Olga Guillot is a true artist indeed.

By the time she reached artistic maturity in the early 1950s, Olga Gui at had fashioned a style of singing unlike any that came before: a wonderfully relaxed exceedingly intimate forum of vocal communication, with an unmatched feeling for phrase and line, in an exceptional voice used with skill, flawless diction, and unprecedented concern with the textual contents of he song. Olga Guillot, like Sinatra--and perhaps only Sinatra before her--makes the song her song, and in turn the listener's song; she speaks directly, and believably, into the heart and mind of her audience.

Beginnings (1923 to 1945)

Olga Guillot was born on October 9, 1923, in the city of Santiago de Cuba on the eastern region of the island. The Guillot family was musically inclined and therefore, the young Olga soon became acquainted with the popular songs of the period, especially those by composers of the trova school, such as Sindo Garay, Manuel Corona, Eusebin Delfín and Rosendo Ruiz, who were then enjoying a sort of golden period. By the time the Guillot family moved to Havana, in the late 1920s, Olga was instinctively and effectively able to sing harmony and her enthusiasm with music seemed to increase with each passing day.

The customary early education of the period was made to leave room for the first attempts at a musical career. In the mid 1930s, Olga and her sister Ana Luisa formed a duo and called themselves Las Hermanitas Guillot. In 1937, the fledgling singers participated in a radio contest and received a prize that gave them valuable encouragement. The following three years were filled with rehearsals, sporadic work on the radio, and family life.

Of the sisters, Olga was the one who consistently displayed the greatest amount of enthusiasm for music and music-making. She listened closely to vocalists of the period, especially soprano Hortensia Coalla and tenor Mariano Meléndez, and emulated what she considered as their good taste and flawless diction. When in 1940, her sister decided to marry and form a family of her own, the singing duo was dissolved and Olga was forced into a four-year period of musical inactivity.

The year 1944 was a good one for Olga Guillot. Early in the year, an audition for pianist Isolina Carrillo (composer of Dos gardenias para tí) resulted in a job for Olga as singer in the vocal group Cuartetn Siboney. Carrillo's discriminating ears had immediately recognized in the young vocalist a natural and effective voice that could be a great asset for the group that also included pianist Facundo Rivero. Working with professionals of the caliber of Carrillo and Rivero, Olga strengthened the foundations of what was about to become a distinguished musical career.

Soloist (1945 to 1954)

The very first recording made by Olga Guillot as a soloist was the result of a fortuitous set of circumstances. Early in 1945, Cuarteto Siboney was scheduled to record, for the recently created Panart label, a set of compositions that included a Spanish-language version of Harold Aden's Stormy Weather (Lluvia Grís). On the day of the recording, however, one of the other members of the group was taken ill and the suggestion was made that Olga record the song as a soloist. The recording was made to everyone's satisfaction and the label soon released it with Harry Warren's At Last (Al Fín)--on the flip side of its disc P1028. Lluvia grís became, not only Olga Guillot's first solo recording, but also her first commercial success. Other recordings quickly followed and by the end of 1946, the Panart catalog included 12 recordings by Olga Guillot as the featured soloist with Humberto Suárez's Orquesta Cosmopolita.