Havana Cuba. – Among the promoters of jazz in Cuba, the name of the eminent pianist, composer and arranger Felipe Dulzaides cannot be missing. His imprint on Cuban music has been great, from his work training instrumentalists, to his contribution as founder of the Jazz Square Festivalwhich is celebrated every year in Havana.
Born on March 13, 1917, Dulzaides showed an early vocation for the piano. His main influence as a performer and arranger came from the Englishman George Shearing, whom he met in Chicago and from whom he acquired a taste for complex harmonizations.
In the 1940s, Dulzaides joined various groups in Matanzas and the capital, until he finally created, in 1948, the Llópiz-Dulzaides quartet, which moved along a commercial sound line, more akin to the pop and rock of the time. .
With this group he toured Latin America and the United States; but in 1955 he abandoned it to found the Los Armónicos quartet, one of the predecessors of the quartet boom that would take place in Cuba in the 1960s. This new ensemble, which began with a vocal-instrumental format to finally be made up only of instruments, allowed Felipe Dulzaides to dedicate himself to the musical genre of his choice: jazz.
With modern sounds and experimentation as a premise, Los Armónicos alternated with famous performers, such as drummer Philly Joe Jones, singer Matt Dennis and Cuban pianists baby valdes and Frank Emilio, among other jazz greats.
The quartet remained open to renewal. During the 1960s, a new generation of musicians joined Dulzaides, with a varied international repertoire that was overwhelmingly successful among young people. They performed regularly in nightclubs in Havana and Varadero, and organized downloads with the participation of Cuban and foreign stars, including pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, trumpeter Jorge Varona, Canadian flutist Moe Koffman, and American drummer Billy Cobham.
For almost 20 years the group functioned as a school where all styles and all ideas fit. Dulzaides was an exceptional catalyst, a generous and at the same time receptive teacher, who impressed his colleagues with his fine musical ear, his training in the mysteries of harmony, his splendid memory and his innate ability to modulate, an invaluable requirement in the execution of the jazz.
Together with the maestros Armando Romeu, Gustavo Más, Luis Escalante and Isidro Pérez, Felipe Dulzaides is considered one of the first to cultivate jazz in Cuba.
