MADRID, Spain.- Helio Orovio, one of the greatest scholars of Cuban music, was born on February 4, 1938 in Santiago de las Vegas.
Within the musical panorama of the Island, he was considered an encyclopedia, for all the knowledge he acquired in his life dedicated to music. His studies are a necessary reference for those who intend to investigate almost any ambit of the island’s music.
His extensive work of musical studies includes titles such as Music from the Caribbean, The Latin bolero, Cuban rhythm, Musicians from Cuba, La Rumba, The Havana carnival and Brief history of Cuban musicto, among many others.
The researcher, musicologist and journalist worked for years at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. In addition, he collaborated as a musical advisor in different Cuban television programs.
Helio Orovio also put theory into practice, as he played percussion in various groups, including Casablanca, Habana Jazz, Zombie and Los Jóvenes del Cayo.
One of his greatest contributions is the Dictionary of Cuban music, the most complete that exists on the Island and that includes five hundred years of musical events. He dedicated 20 years of work to its formation.
About the dictionary, in an editorial after his death, the Spanish media The country he explained: “He went through Cain’s to write and finish it, even more so to publish it in 1992 with the required dignity. His way of working was always artisan and meticulous. He interviewed most of the protagonists of the dictionary with pencil and paper, no tape recorders, and he reached out to the disappeared through the stories that his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren told him, although most of the data and anecdotes were kept in his memory”.
An English version of the dictionary was published in the United States in 2003. Magazine bill board He described it as an “essential compendium to understand the real dimension of that small island in the continent of music.”
Helio Orovio died of cancer on October 6, 2008, at the age of 70, in his native Santiago de las Vegas.
