ABELARDO BARROSO WITH ORQUESTA SENSACION

In reality this is not new music. This is a remastered album (for the first time in 60 years) of the album that Abelardo Barroso recorded with Orquesta Sensacion for Puchito Records. It got to me in November of 2014 and has since been on my desk waiting for today.

Barroso was called “El Caruso de Cuba.” He was in and out of the spotlight starting in the 1920s, first with Sexteto Habanero, then during the danzonette craze of the 1930s, and later in the 50s with Orquesta Sensacion.

Rolando Valdes, the leader of Orquesta Sensacion, remembers Barroso as having “an amazing voice… He was always keen to dance. If people saw him dance a rumba they would still be talking about it days later.”

Barroso’s last performance happened on New Year’s Day of 1968. Soon after, he had an operation on his vocal chords that left him unable to sing. He died of emphysema in Havana on Sep. 27, 1972.