Personnel:
Eduardo Ciarreta (vcl), Rodolfo Dita (b), Julio Valdés (vcl), Ovidio Pérez (violín), Tomás Calderón (p), Alberto 'Pancho el Bravo' Cruz (fl), René Pérez (violín), Alberto Díaz (vcl), Antonio Rodríguez Calderón (conga), Sergio Corona (güiro)
Reference: CCD 522
Alberto Cruz Torre, known internationally as Pancho El Bravo, was one of the most innovative flautists of his generation and his charanga was the most popular band among the Cuban dance crowds in the Seventies. With his virtuosity on the flute, his picaresque and lively compositions and his danceable experimentation with the danzón, Pancho El Bravo revitalized the genre and became the new voice of the danzón. After Pérez Prados work with mambo and the Orquesta América with cha cha cha, it was the turn of Pancho and his tira tira rhythm, something he experimented with from the time he worked with the Neno González orchestra. Unfortunately, luck was
not on his side and his creation remained a prisoner on an island that had closed off any possibility of cultural exchange with the outside world.
On this CD you'll listen to the first recordings of his band and as a very exceptional bonus tracks, two early recordings of Pancho el Bravo with El Ritmo Juvenil, his father's orchestra.