Francisco Amat Rodríguez, better known as Pancho Amat, is one of those rare Cuban musicians who dominate practically all the secrets of the island. He has passed through the most popular groups, worked with jazz musicians, composed music for movies or television, and created dance music. He is a musician open to all styles, able to collaborate with both Víctor Jara and Juan Perro, taking his conservatory training to the field of traditional music.
He was born in Güira de Melena, province of Havana, in April 1950. His mother gave him musical toys because she was against guns. His father sold coal on the street and one day, when Pancho was seven years old, a customer who could not pay him a sack of coal proposed to give him a tress guitar that he had hung on the wall. His father accepted because he saw the possibility of giving a real instrument to his son.
He graduated from the University of Havana in 1971 in the specialty of pedagogy. That same year he founded the Manguare group, where he remained as director for many years. He graduated from the Ignacio Cervantes Conservatory in the specialty of classical guitar, he studied several postgraduate studies of higher level in different specialties of music: harmony, Counterpoint, Orchestration, Morphology … etc. Later he studied music in the Republic of Chile with the most important exponents of the New Chilean Song, Inti-Ilimani, Quilapayún and Isabel Parra among others, making multiple recordings with Víctor Jara for Channel 7 of Chilean TV. All this work was combined with studies of harmony and orchestration for different formats of popular Cuban music, advised by Rafael Lay (director and violinist of La Orquesta Aragón), Frank Fernández and Juan Elosegui.
With Manguare he made around 40 international tours to more than thirty countries from all continents. He recorded over a dozen albums with the most prestigious artists of Cuba and the Americas and participated in the most important music contests organized by the different cultural entities, obtaining in they the greatest recognition and awards in orchestration and composition. Pancho rose to the top category the three as concertante instrument, developing techniques and concepts from the classics, jazz and the troubadour song.
As a record producer he has performed orchestrations for all formats of Cuban music: Orquesta De Son, Trios, Cuartetos, Conjunto Tipico, Charanga and even The National Symphony Orchestra.
In recordings and live performances you have to associate his name with the likes of Oscar D’Leon, Papo Lucas, Joaquin Sabina, Cesaria Evora, Ry Cooder, The Chieftains, Yomo Toro, John Parsons, Rosana, Alfredo De La Fe, Víctor Jara … among a long list of world music greats.
In 1995 he made a solo album Son Por Tres, which obtained the National Critic Award specialized in the Cubadisco contest that is annually held among all record labels based in Cuba.
He collaborated in the project of the prestigious Spanish musician Santiago Auserón named Juan Perro in which he added rock and Cuban music and, independently, he developed an important solo career in different groups: Cubanismo, Bárbaro Torres, Noche Tropical, Adalberto and his Son and The Ferrin Sisters.
The title of his album De San Antonio a Maisí is not random, it means that the songs of the CD cover all of Cuba, from Cabo de San Antonio, a few miles from the Mexican Yucatan, to Punta Maisí, next to Haiti, in the eastern end of the island. Very traditional music, where songs from the beginning of the century coexist with Pancho’s own compositions, oriente-style boleros, afro-son, salsa and good humor.
Accompanied by his group El Cabildo Del Son and with the added bonus of friends, such as Silvio Rodríguez and Juan Perro, Pancho shows his mastery of three and four with the vertiginous digitación and abundant imagination that justify being considered the heir of treseros of legend such as Arsenio Rodríguez or El Niño Rivera. At present, Pancho Amat is recognized as the most important tres performer.
Discography:
Son Por Tres (1995)
De San Antonio A Maisí (Resistencia 2000)
Herencias
Llegó El Tresero
Classica Cubana (Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, 2008)
Son x tres (Caribe, 2014)
Haciendo Son En Otro Jazz (2016)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
