Eliseo Grenet

Eliseo Grenet

Eliseo Grenet Sánchez (born June 12, 1893 in Havana , † November 4, 1950 there ) was a Cuban pianist and composer .

Grenet had piano lessons from the age of five and studied at the Havana Conservatory. In 1905 he worked as a pianist in the cinema La Caricatura , and in 1909 he directed the orchestra of the Teatro Politeama Habanero , where he performed several zarzuelas. He later joined Regino López's theater company at the Teatro Cubano .

In 1925 Grenet founded a jazz band that included the saxophonists Manolo Castro and José Ramón Betancourt , the trumpeter Pedro Mercado , the drummer and singer Enrique Santisteban and, at times, the pianists Jorge Bolet and Emilio Grenet .

In 1927 he made his debut with the stage work Regina Niña Rita based on a libretto by Aurelio Riancho , whose famous title Mamá Inés was sung by Rita Montaner . In 1929 he won the gold medal for folklore composition at the World Exhibition in Seville .

After he was expelled from Cuba in 1932 under the presidency of Gerardo Machado , he worked as a singer and pianist at the Teatro Dindurra in Gijón, Spain. His operetta La virgen morena was premiered at the Teatro Nuevo de Barcelona under his own direction . With the play he had great success in Paris. There he performed in the Cabaret La Cueva with the orchestra of Julio Cueva , which also included his brother Ernesto Grenet , and worked for the film Princesse Tam-Tam with Josephine Baker . After stops in London and New York , Grenet founded Cabaret El Yumurí on Broadway in 1936 , where the quartet of the Puerto Rican composer Pedro Flores performed and he performed the revue La conga with the Mexican singer Jorge Negrete .

Then Grenet went to Mexico, where he composed the music for the films Escándalo de estrellas , Conga bar and Estampas coloniales and worked for the radio. After a period in Buenos Aires , he returned to Havana in 1946. In addition to stage works and film music, Grenet composed numerous popular songs such as Habanera , Lamento Esclavo , Facundo , Rica Pulpa , Spic and Spanish , True and Sincere Love , Always Remember , Cuba de mi Vida , The Lady Likes to Love , Congo Conga and Viena la conga . In addition to the aforementioned, Al Stillman , Bickley Reichner , Marion Sunshine , Nat Burton and Walter Kent were among his musical partners.

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• Eliseo Grenet in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• EcuRed: Eliseo Grenet