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Contemporary Cuba is full of rags-to-riches stories, but few lives caught people's imaginations more than that of Polo Montañez, who rose overnight to popular fame as a country singer. He has died, aged 47, from head injuries suffered in a road accident.His first disc, Guajiro Natural (An Ordinary Country Bloke), defined him precisely. He epitomised the Cuban countryside from his sun-weathered face, straw hat and direct smile to his understated sense of humour. His stage name paid homage to the wooded hills surrounding the area of La Terraza, where he had always lived.
Until 1999 he was a farm-worker who sang in the evenings and at weekends at the local Hotel La Moka with a group of family and friends, who had played together all their lives. He struck lucky, or, as he said himself, the saints shone down on him, when French record producer and label boss José da Silva, the man who found Cesaria Evora in Cape Verde, was bewitched by Montañez's sincere, uncluttered country style and the genuine musicality of his small group with their zingy guitars and percussion.
Before they knew it they were in the Abdala studios in Havana recording for Da Silva's Lusafrica label. Montañez's radio-friendly music made him an instant hit all over Cuba and almost immediately in Colombia, his fame soon spreading throughout Central America and the Caribbean, where everyone seemed to learn the lyrics to his catchy song overnight.
Montañez was a natural poet, composing intuitively using the old Spanish improvised décima verse forms beloved of Cuban country music, and particularly fostered by the tobacco farmers of his region, Pinar del Rio. He created wonderfully lively guarachas marrying rhyming verses with choruses to Afro-Cuban rhythms that were full of swing.
The lyrics of his famous song Guajiro Natural amount to his testimony: 'I'm an ordinary bloke from the wild hills/ I know my position and place/ I come from the yoke of the ox cart/ bringing the smell of charcoal and the countryside/ I'll get on a plane if I have to/ But I'll always come back ... for I love the way the zorzal sings in the mountains.' Cleverly, it included word-play evoking Afro-Cuban religious beliefs and the wellspring of ancient popular poetry.
Like everything he sang, all his songs were his own. As he told me recently in Essen, Germany, after a concert for the 2000 delegates at the Womex world music fair, 'I compose about real experiences that happen to me or someone I know. My songs are like little novels that speak the truth and I think that's why people take them to heart.'
And so chart-topper Un Montón De Estrellas (A Mountain Of Stars), telling how idiotic love can make you, how painful it can be and yet how much it is worth, turned out to have been written about a relationship that had ended three years earlier. He worked on songs in his head until he could sing them perfectly and then worked on them with his guitar and then his band.
The world seemed to be his oyster and he was loving every minute of it. In 2001 he had become an 'Illustrious Son of Colombia' and in May 2002 he was made Cubadisco's Artist of the Year. He had just played open air concerts to vast crowds in Cuba's 20 largest cities and to 100,000 in Havana. One evening when he wanted to get home after a concert, the car he was in collided late at night with a tractor-trailer. His 25-year-old stepson was killed instantly and his wife injured. Montañez died a week later, with the Cuban public following their folk-hero's fight for life through every news bulletin.
He leaves a legacy of over a hundred songs and two records which have rejuvenated Cuban country music and brought it back into the mainstream.
· Polo Montañez (Fernando Borrego Linares), singer, born June 5 1955; died November 26 2002
Birth name | Fernando Borrego Linares |
---|---|
Also known as | Guajiro Natural |
Born | 5 June 1955 El Brujito, Provincia de Artemisa, Cuba |
Died | 26 November 2002 (aged 47) Havana |
Genres | Son Cubano |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instruments | Guitar |
Years active | 1970s–2002 |
Labels | Lusafrica |
Associated acts |
Polo Montañez (June 5, 1955 - November 26, 2002) was a Cuban singer and songwriter.
Early life[edit]
Montañez was born Fernando Borrego Linares in Sierra del Rosario, Pinar del Río, on a farm known as El Brujito. At an early age he worked various jobs including driving a tractor, milking cows, making charcoal, assisting on the family farm, and as a lumberjack. In his spare time, Montañez would go from house to house singing. He began to sing and play in local parties and family gatherings with his father. In those gatherings, he started playing the tumbadora and the guitar at age 7.
![Estrellas Estrellas](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126238486/730429299.jpg)
From Anonymity to International Fame[edit]
'…Polo composes while he's walking or driving a tractor, while he's swimming, under the rain, the sun or the moon, when he's seeding the land... and even when he's sleeping'.
— Booklet from his first album.
He started to manage a group that played in touristic areas of La Cordillera de los Órganos. He lived in la Cañada del Infierno, Casa Blanca, Finca del Cusco, and in 1972 he occupied one of the houses in the touristic community of Las Terrazas. He composed his first song in 1973, titled 'Este tiempo feliz' (This happy time), after that he continued creating, but he stored his songs in a drawer because he didn't consider them valuable.
In around 1994 when the Complejo Las Terrazas was founded, Polo and his own ensemble of sort started playing at its different touristic installations, like Hotel Moka, Rancho Curujey and Cafetal Buenavista. Between those tasks, he met a Lusafrica European label owner and in 1999 signed a contract to make a few records. From there his first album 'Guajiro Natural' and the song 'Un montón de Estrellas' were born. In Colombia it sold more than 40,000 copies, obtaining Gold and Platinum status, and he was recognized as the most listened to international artist. He became known as the Guajiro Natural (Natural Countryman) because of his humble personality and songs about peasant life in Cuba.
At age 44 he had more than 70 songs written as an autodidact. He had no professional training nor musical knowledge, apart from listening the countryside sounds. He composed in a mix of genres, making use of rhythms he heard and knew. He developed his own style with themes about outside or personal events, impregnated with rural elements: the oxyoke, the smell of coal, the smell of bateys.
In Cuba, Polo's popularity skyrocketed. Spectators' numbers at his concerts exceeded expectations.
Concert in Holguín:
In the year 2002 he played a master concert at the city of Holguín, where many more people attended than event planners ever thought would.
Visited Countries[edit]
![Translation Translation](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126238486/525876964.jpg)
He has visited Colombia five times, France on two occasions; he has performed in Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, México, Ecuador, and Costa Rica too. He shared the stage with artists as Rubén Blades, Andy Montañez, Margarita Francisco, Cesária Évora, Cándido Fabré, Francisco Repilado (Compay Segundo), Eliades Ochoa, Adalberto Álvarez, Danny Rivera, Gilberto Santa Rosa and others.
Death[edit]
Polo Montañez died on November 26, 2002, six days after being hospitalized in the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital, as a result of a tragic car accident in the Coronela zone near San Cristóbal, Pinar del Río. He was buried in the cemetery of Candelaria, at Artemisa.The cultural centre in the main square of Viñales, Pinar del Rio, is named in his memory.
Soon after his death the songwriter José Valladares composed a song in honour of Polo entitled 'Cazador de Estrellas' (Star Hunter), which was interpreted by various artists such as Pedro Calvo, Paulito FG, Jenny (Los Van Van's vocalist) among others, making a tribute to the unforgettable figure of the Guajiro Natural.
Discography[edit]
- Guajiro Natural (2000) - CD Lusafrica 362202
- Guitarra Mía (2002) - CD Lusafrica 362502
- Memoria (2004) - CD Lusafrica 462222
- El Guajiro (2005) - DVD Lusafrica 462438, 2005
- Cuestión de Suerte (2006)
His greatest hit in his career was the song 'Un montón de estrellas', included on his albums Guajiro Natural and Memoria, demonstrating his influence and love for everything that touched his heart. It achieved great success throughout Latin America.
External links[edit]
- Agrupación Polo Montañez presenta nuevo disco[dead link] (Article published at Radio Guamá
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