Latino Music Cafe

Tite Curet honored at Puerto Rico Salsa Event

Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Feature, Latino Music

The 26^th edition of El Día Nacional de la Salsa in Puerto Rico was another latino music smashing success. This event celebrated March 29, 2009 at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, has grown to now have people fly-in to attend from various countries, including Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Germany to mentions a few. And this year’s surprise special invited artist was Rubén Blades, who came via Panamá.

This year, El Día Nacional de la Salsa was dedicated to three great Puerto Rican music personalities:

·         Luis García - the great maestro, tres player, and arranger.

·         Rafael Cortijo – the father of Puerto Rico’s popular latin music, with so many artist descending directly or indirectly from his great Combo.

·         Tite Curet Alonso – one of the most prolific composers of latin music.

Tite Curet’s Legacy:

I will focus today on Tite Curet, because of the incident that prevented almost a generation of latino music lover from enjoying his compositions through the radio.

Tite Curet wrote over 2000 songs, many of them interpreted by salsa artists, but a good portion were also performed by artists in other latino music genres (see a complete list of Tite’s songs here). Cheo Feliciano was one of Tite’s favorites singers, and one who Tite’s help to reviving his career after being away from the scene due to drug problems. Tite many times would write or shape his songs to the artist who will perform them, to match their style or circumstances. He did exactly that when he wrote Anacaona, the story of a Dominican Taino Indian woman, who fights to regain her liberty. Some say Tite used the story as a methaphor for Cheo fighing to regain his liberty (literally and figuratively) from drugs. Anacaona became a great hit, and Cheo’s career comeback was a success.  As Ruben Blades would say in an interview, Tite’s songs were very sought after because of his ability to write hits and make careers. Ruben benefited of Tite’s songs early in his career. In his 1^st two recording with Fania, Blades sang “Vale Mas un Guaguancó” with Ray Barretto, and “Plantación Adentro” with Willie Colon in “Metiendo Mano” (see a video of Ruben singing “Vale Mas un Guaguancó” at El Día Nacional de la Salsa 2009 in Latino Web Café’s right panel video widget or in the Video section - catch his soneo referencing Elvis Crespo recent incident in a plane).

Tite had a poetic way to make his story-telling through songs. Tite could paint many situations in his songs, from love scenes, to historical events, to just every day situations. From “La Palabra Adios” (of a lost love), to “Los Entierros” (poor’s people funerals), to “Plantacion Adentro” (abuse of plantation workers by their feudal boss).  

My Tite Curet Favorites:

My favorite Tite songs (I don’t know I can just select a few favorites because most of Tite’s songs are favorites) if I had to select the first ones to come to mind are “Testigo Fui”, “Plantacion Adentro”, “Los Entierros”, and “Vale Mas un Guaguancó”. “Testigo Fui” was songed by Juana Diaz’s Tito Gomez, with Ruben Blades doing 2^nd voice in the 1^st part of the song, as it was recorded when both were in Ray Barretto’s band, Blades 1^st entry into Fania. (hear the song with a slide show of photos in the right hand panel of the LWC site or in the Video section)

Legal Issues with ACEMLA:

Tite Curet songs were not permitted to be played in the radio due to a legal dispute that ACEMLA (Asociación de Compositores y Escritores de Música de Latinoamérica) established with the local radio stations, claiming the rights to Curet Alonso songs. Tite became a member of ACEMLA tricked into thinking they would fight for writers’ rights, but they only were looking after themselves, and not the writers they supposedly represented. Curet was very frustrated in his later years because his worked would not be played in radio. That meant recording labels would not record his songs because they would not get played in the radio. Finally, Emusic steped-in and in 2008 was able to resolve the legal dispute. Now Tite’s music can be heard again, and this was celebrated at El Día Nacional de la Salsa.

Get more on Tite Curet Alonso:

Latin Beat Magazine dedicated the cover and feature article of its February 2009 edition to Tite Curet Alonso. Emusic, who bought out the Fania collection, published a great double CD of Tite’s songs. This is a great addition to your latino music collection, as it contains 31 of his greatest hit songs (link to the CD information here). And finally here’s another link to a great article in Spanish about Tite Curet Alonso. A great, humble human being who had a great impact on latin music.

Tags: barretto, cheo feliciano, cortijo, curet alonso, dia nacional de la salsa, elvis crespo, latin beat magazine, latin music, Latino Music, Puerto Rico, ruben blades, salsa, tite curet, willie colon