Armando Cabrera

Composer of great boleros, Armando Cabrera was born on March 13, 1921 in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, in a family of artists. His mother, Antonia Colón, was the Filipa that for decades delighted the listeners of La Voz del Yuna in the Romance peasant space. Armando, from very small, began to accompany songs with the guitar and, self-taught, he got to win a contest that was organized in the HIZ radio station, which served him to go getting, more and more frequently, in the main radio stations of the country. During the 1940s he was part of the trio of Modern Troubadours, which was also integrated by Alcibiades Sánchez and Pedro Ureña. It was with the latter that he accompanied Eduardo Brito during the era of brightness of the divo. In La Voz del Yuna he appeared with the Azteca Trio, which was integrated by Emilio Cabucia and Emilio Castillo, with whom he arrived, for the fifties, to work in La Voz Domincana. Of his songbook, many were recorded titles and many who enjoyed the favor of the public. There are still pieces such as the Bolero Veneno, recorded in the fifties by the Sexteto Flores and, some time later, Rafael Colón and Marcelino Plácido, with the orchestra Santa Cecilia, by Luis Alberti. They remain in the musical memory boleros as Love and hate and She. And perhaps the most popular of all his creations and one of the most flamboyant boleros in the whole continent: You need me, which has been recorded by stars, such as José Feliciano, Tania Libertad and Panchito Riset. In 1988, at an age when almost all men think of going to rest in the heat of a family forged during a lifetime of work, Armando Cabrera joined the trio Los Tres with Carlos Vargas and El Niño Peña.