Mambo n 8 xavier cugat biography

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Xavier Cugat, King of the Rumbas

Don Juan (first synchro-sound film); Warner Bros.; 1926 The Jazz Singer (first soundie/dialogue); Warner Bros.; 1927 Cugat & his Gigolos (first musical short); Warner Bros. Charros, Gauchos y Manolas (musical he scored, directed, produced) The Great Divide (as musical director only) Two Girls and a Sailor (w/Harry James); MGM; 1944Bathing Beauty (w/Esther Williams); MGMWeekend at the Waldorf; MGMHoliday in Mexico; MGMThis Time for Keeps; MGMNo Leave, No Love; MGMYou Were Never Lovelier; MGMLet's Face ItSweater GirlCall Me MisterOn an Island with You (w/Esther Williams); MGMA Date with Judy (w/Carmen Miranda); MGMStage Door Canteen; Warner Bros.The Heat's On (orchestra only)

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Xavier CUGAT and His Orchestra – Mambo! 1950-1952
Featuring Abbe LANE
(2CD)

Jazz

This Spanish violinist and band leader was born in Spain and raised in Havana. He emigrated to the U.S. and worked as a cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. In 1928 he began appearing with his first band at the Cocoanut Grove in Hollywood. Greatly helping to popularize Latin rhythms in the U.S., by the 30s and 40s he became known as America’s “rumba king.” Occasionally he appeared in films, often as himself leading his band through several musical numbers; sometimes played genial fictional characters. He gave up his career after suffering a stroke in 1971. His third wife was singer Abbe Lane and his fourth was singer and TV personality Charo.
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CD1:

01. Maracaibo
02. Anything can happen-mambo
03. Cerezo Rosa y Manzano Blanco
04. Mambo O.K
05. Park Avenue Mambo
06. Jamay
07. Mambo gallego
08. El Marijuano
09. Mambo nº5
10. Strangers in the dark
11. Mambo ay ay

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Xavier Cugat, King of the Rumbas

Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Denlofeo's career was long and influential, touching every generation in the twentieth century. And why not? He was born on the first of January, 1900 in Gerona, Spain. He brought Latin music into the North American household via records, radio, milestone films (the first to incorporate sound), and television programs. His sixteen-year reign over New York's prestigious Waldorf-Astoria hotel was unprecedented and unduplicated.

Cugat received a boost from Enrico Caruso in Cuba, where the Cugats had moved and Caruso was performing. When old enough, the young violin prodigy headed for New York but failed at Carnegie. Moving to California, he developed a life-long hobby as a caricaturist, while Hollywood gradually changed his musical milieu (and he, its). A tentative offer from the Waldorf brought Cugat back to New York and launched his rise to international fame as "King of the Rumbas.