Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) ﹐於西班牙的Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeo出生﹐5歲時隨家人移民到古巴﹐並且接受小提琴的課程﹐12歲便於Havana的Teatro Nacional與樂團一起演奏﹐可是他並不喜歡古典音樂。1990年看過一部電影名叫阿飛正傳﹐電影中大部份的配樂來自Xavier Cugat於60年代的錄音﹐據說那是50/60年代歌星潘迪華所提議的。

大約15歲時﹐Xavier搬到紐約組成一隊樂隊名叫“The Gigolos”﹐ 開始演奏一些探戈音樂﹐不久因失業故在Los Angeles 參與動畫的配音。踏入20年代﹐有聲電影開始流行﹐Xavier Cugat重歸音樂事業﹐他的探戈樂隊Latin American Band開始參與電影拍攝。進入30年代﹐他的樂隊開始在紐約的Waldorf Astoria酒店演奏。1940年他灌錄了大熱單曲Perfidia ﹐由Miguelito Valdes主唱﹐其後也曾多次灌錄純音樂版本。

Xavier Cugat深有音樂潮流的觸角﹐他對Tango﹑Cha-Cha ﹑Mambo及Rhumba一類的拉丁音樂有很大的推動﹐甚至對Perez Prado有很大的影響 (他的金曲有 1955年的Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White) 。Xavier一生結婚4次﹐ 1970年退休﹐返回西班牙居住﹐1990年死於心臟衰歇。他主要的錄音分別是早期的 Columbia ﹑中期的RCA Victor及後期的Mercury。

Xavier Cugat (January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990) was a Spanish-Cuban bandleader whom many consider to have had more to do with the infusion of Latin music into United States popular music than any other musician. Perez Prado followed in Cugat’s footsteps.

Cugat was born Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeo in Girona, Spain. With his family, he immigrated to Cuba when he was five. He trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana.

Sometime between 1915 and 1918, Cugat moved to New York, where he played with a band called “The Gigolos” during the tango craze. Later, he went to work for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist (Cugat’s caricatures were later nationally syndicated).

In the late 1920s, sound began to be used in movies, he put together another tango band that had some success in early short musical films. By the early 1930s, he began appearing with his group in feature films. Cugat took his band to New York to open the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel and it became the hotel’s resident group.

He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next thirty years, alternating hotel and radio dates with movie appearances.

In 1940, he recorded the song Perfidia with singer Miguelito Valdés which became a big hit. Cugat followed trends closely, making records for the conga, the mambo, the cha-cha-cha, and the twist when each were in fashion. His first marriage in 1952 was to singer, Abbe Lane, they performed together until they divorced in 1964. He married salsa dancer Charo on August 7, ? the two were the first couple to marry in the newly opened Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Cugat did not lose sleep over artistic compromises: “I would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve.”

Cugat died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona in his native Catalonia, Spain.

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