MADRID, Spain.- Generoso Jiménez García was one of the most highly valued trombonists in the 1950s on the island. Some consider him the father of the Cuban trombone, or the father of the Creole trombone and a legend of popular music.
However, he became more famous for having been the arranger and trombonist of the Giant Band of Benny More —in addition to becoming his friend— and the improvised chorus about him by the Rhythm Barbarian in a presentation in Venezuela, of “Generoso, qué buen toca usted”.
Generoso was born on July 17, 1917 in Cruces, in the current province of Cienfuegos. There he began to study music from childhood and in his adolescence he was part of orchestras that toured the former province of Las Villas. Later he moved to Havana, where he would play in important orchestras such as that of the Tropicana Cabaretthe Ringling Brothers Circus and several more, until reaching Benny’s.
In an interview published in Workers In March 1986, Generoso recounted his first meeting with Benny Moré in 1952 on bus route 58, a short while later another meeting at the Cadena Azul radio station, and his entry into the band later on. In this interview he recounted how the chorus of “Generoso, qué buen toca usted” came about. This is how he recounted it:
“When I received a cable from Benny from Venezuela on January 15, 1956 asking me to mobilize the musicians because he had agreed to a contract for the carnival festivities, the pianist had already signed another one with several members of the group (…). We looked for new musicians, we planned to leave on February 8, rehearse there and debut on the 10th; but due to problems with the airline company we left on the 10th. When we arrived, the person who hired us was waiting for us at the hotel door to do a television program (…) With seven musicians who did not know the orchestra’s repertoire.”
And he continued: “With 12 minutes left in the program, Benny asked: ‘What do we do now? (…) we’re going to play.’ (…) Then he started singing ‘Castellano, how good you dance.’ He looked where I was, I started to improvise and he continued: ‘Generoso, how good you play.’ And then he said: ‘Benny Moré, what a band you have.’
“The show went off the air with the number. That night we debuted in a cabaret and they immediately asked us: “Play that machacadito.”
Generoso would later reap many other successes. In 1965 he recorded “El trombón majadero”, considered a classic of Cuban discography; in 2002 “Qué buen toca usted” was recorded in his honor, nominated for the Grammy in 2003, a ceremony she attended in New York. In 2005, while already living in the United States, the Latin Recording Academy awarded her an Honorary Grammy Award for Artistic Excellence, which she received at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
The Cuban musicologist Helio Orovio (1938-2008) in his work published in London in 2004 by Tumi Music Ltd as Cuban music from A to Z He points out that Generoso was the composer of very popular pieces such as “Maíz paˈ los pollos”.
Generoso Jiménez, also known as Tojo, a pioneer in Cuban trombone improvisation who left a very personal mark on the musical instrument and a sound that some called playful, died at the age of 90 in Miami —where he spent the last years of his life— on September 15, 2007, as a result of kidney failure. His legacy would be followed by other Cuban trombonists, including his daughter Regina Jiménez, the first female graduate of trombone in Cuba.
