Cristobal Diaz Ayala - historiador de la música - Tt: Cristobal Diaz Ayala - TA: music historian - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2000 by Rudy Mangual

Born in 1930, Havana, Cuba, Dr. Cristobal Diaz Ayala is much more than a writer/music researcher with a doctorate degree in social sciences and law. At the age of 14, he was already working as a radio DJ on a swing and jazz program broadcasting from Havana, Cuba. During his college years he was a journalist for 4 years before departing from Cuba with his family and venturing out into the world. Presently retired from practicing law and heading a construction business in Puerto Rico, Diaz Ayala continues the pursuit of his real first love, researching, documenting, collecting and enjoying the art of Latin music.

He relocated his family to Puerto Rico in 1960 and has been there ever since. Diaz Ayala and I recently had the pleasure of sitting down and discussing music, music, and more music. Listening to him speak in his soothing, melodic, intelligent voice was like having an encyclopedia of music speak out loud without intimidation or lecturing and with a story behind every fact.

Diaz Ayala started to collect musical recordings upon his arrival to Borinquen, a hobby that he began in Cuba. Immediately he also became involved with the press, radio, and television. In 1981, he wrote and self-published his first book, Del Areyto a la Nueva Trova -- Historia de la Música Cubana. This book traces the history of Cuban music. During the eighties in Puerto Rico, Diaz Ayala was honored and awarded on several occasions by the Instituto Teleradial de Puerto Rico, for his Cubanacán radio program, a weekly show that ran from 1979-1992, in WIPR, WEUC and WRTU radio stations.

His second book was published in 1988, Si Te Quieres Por el Pico Divertir -- Historia del Pregón Musical Latinoamericano. This second book is a history of Latin American street cries (pregones). He started the nineties as a collaborator for Groves Dictionary of Jazz, as well as collaborating with the Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericana.

He has traveled to conferences and universities all over the world to speak, and by 1992, Diaz Ayala was contributing book reviews to Latin Beat Magazine and sharing his wealth of musical knowledge with the publication.

In 1994, he completed his third book, Cuba Canta y Baila -- Discografía de la Música Cubana, Vol. 1. This 365-page first volume of the discography of Cuban music covers recordings from 1898 to 1925 and unlike most discographies includes biographies and photographs of many of the artists and musicians. He is diligently working on the second stage of this project, which will cover recordings from 1925 to 1960. Other publications by Diaz Ayala include Cuando Sali de la Habana 1898-1997: Cien Años de Musica Cubana Por el Mundo, 1998; La Marcha de Los Jibaros 1898-1997. Cien Años de Música Puertorriqueña Por el Mundo, 1998 (where he served as the main coordinator of material for all the collaborators included), and Cien Canciones Cubanas del Milenio, 1999. Another book in the works has a working title of La Revolución de la Música Puertorriqueña en Nueva York.

After his retirement in 1995, he and his wife Marisa created Fundación Musicalia in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Fundación Musicalia is located inside a two-story white house, a.k.a. "La casita," that must have been an architectural landmark in its day. Inside is a treasure trove of vinyl music (78s and 33s rpm, and 16-inch), the largest collection of its kind anywhere, plus a complete music book library with hundreds of books, magazines, and research material, musical cylinders and Spanish cinema classic posters, and the working office and headquarters for his music research foundation. Diaz Ayala and wife Marisa, together with an assistant, work side by side with a passion for music that can only be appreciated by a visit to this mini-museum. Every item of information, every piece of music in "La casita" is categorized for quick and easy reference. Within minutes of asking a question, the answer is located with dates, details and specifications. A walk through "La casita" is like a voyage through Latin America from the past 100 years. There is sufficient information and music available to research and write hundreds of books on Latin music.

Cristobal Diaz Ayala's most recent endeavor was serving as a curator for a multi-media music exhibition called Acángana: 100 years of the music of Puerto Rico, still showing at the exhibition room of the Banco Popular building in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Some of the jewels of the exhibition include some of Diaz Ayala's musical cylinders from 1909 among an array of musical instruments and artifacts relevant to Puerto Rican music.

We salute and congratulate the work of this extraordinary music researcher, writer, collector, good friend and lover of Latin music. He can be reached at: email fundmusicalia@prtc.net.