El montunnero de Cuba:
Pío Leiva

With recent acclaim as one of the vocalsits on the Buena Vista Social Club recordings and film as well as touring with Maraca and Barbarito Torres, 83-year-old Pío Leiva is remarkable on stage and in person. Spry and with his cigar in hand, Pío sings with great heart and jokes and shamelessly flirts with the audience. I arrived at his apartment just outside of Havana for what became an enjoyable interivew and afternoon.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your life?
Pío Leiva: I was born in in Morón, on May 5th, 1917. My name is Wilfredo Pío Leiva Pascual. When I was a kid I used to sing a lot in the patio of my own house. I would climb a tree and start singing and the next day the neighbors would tell me: "I heard you singing." One day I went out and there was a wake for a saint in a house at Narciso López Street. I went there and I found a septet playing. I stood by the door and I asked the musicians if they would allow me to sing a piece. And one of them answered: "How can I let you sing? I don’t even know you!" "I know, I said but please allow me to sing with you." Then a friend of mine, Valentín Sandoval, rest in peace, who played bongos with the group, stood up and asked the director: "Let the kid sing something." I came in, they brought me a stool, I climbed on top of it and I sang a piece that said [he starts singing]: "Negra linda, negra santa / cómo me gusta gozar / Déjame pues, mi negrita / mis pesares disipar / escuchando los cantares / de mi tierra bendecida / esta tierra maltratada / con quien yo aprendí a gozar. / Afrocubano soy, afrocubano / por mis venas corre sangre / del continente africano / por eso me gusta el son / donde canta la guitarra / los motivos de mi tierra / de la era colonial." (Pretty black woman, saint blackwoman / how I like to enjoy myself / Allow me then, / my little black women / to erase my pains / listening to the songs / of my blessed land / this abused land / whith whom I learned how to have a good time./ Afrocuban I am, afrocuban / through my veins flows the blood / of the African continent / that’s why I like the son / where the guitar sings / the themes of my land / from the colonial period.)

Then everybody applauded, and I left, and the next day a friend of mine, Juanito Blé, who also has passed away, sent somebody to get me in my house so I could go perform in a dance with him. I sang that night and I haven’t stopped ever since. And that was around the year 1930.

Q: What happened next for you?
PL: I started singing with different bands: Orquesta de Jesús Montago, Orquesta Raqueteros del Swing, Orquesta del Paseiro, Sexteto Colón… After that I had a trio, sponsored by a brand of coffee, Café el Angel, and we did radio and so on and so forth. Then I came to Havana with a band named Hermanos Martín. I came and I left again. And I came and left several times until the year 1957, when I moved here for good. Then I recorded with Esteban Antúnez. I did a sample for RCA Records, together with other six or seven singers, among them Olga Rivero. From all of those singers they accepted me and made an exclusive artist for RCA Records. I recorded the first four pieces with Bebo Valdés in the piano. After that I recorded four other pieces, also with Bebo. And then I freed myself from the label and I started to record on my own. Some of my first hits were "Con cocaleja y cangrejal," "Abre que voy," "Chapaleando," "Nadie baila como yo," "Sin caña y sin platanar" [he starts singing]: "Mi guajira se fue pa la capital / porque me quedé sin caña y sin platanar" (My sweetheart left to the capital / because I lost my cane and my banana plantation").

I was not sure yet if I wanted to stay here, but I stayed! Then I recorded my first LP with twelve pieces with Orquesta Mariano Mercerón. In that recording I sang "Me voy para Jaronú". Well, then I started to get hired to sing in cabarets, dances in the interior of the island, and so on and so forth… I had a hit with "Don Pantaleón", and I had added up to that song a ten-line stanza that I had composed, and those lyrics made me popular. I recorded with Orquesta Cosmopolita, Orquesta Monumental, Orquesta Novedades&emdash;the director was Silvio Contreras&emdash;… That was around 1957, I believe, the same year I moved here. When I hit it big with "La cocaleca" I went to Panama. Then I went to Mexico. I have traveled a lot and I know many countries. Before I moved here to Havana in 1957, I had recorded with Compay Segundo and his quartet. I recorded a lot of pieces with him, and just now they released them in a cd. One of the last recordings I did with Compay was "El Chanchá". That was many years ago! I recorded with him "Un jardinero de amor", "Anita", "Francisco Guayabal", which I had composed… and many more.

Q: When did you record "Mentiroso"?
PL: That was after the Revolution, in the year 1959 or 1960. And then I started recording on my own, I did not have a contract with anybody, I would record and get paid, and that’s how I became a hit.

Q: And what did you do during the 70’s and 80’s?
PL: I was already famous. I used to do many television programs, "Jueves Partagaz", "Casino Alegría", I did many "Palmas y cañas" for don Ramón Veló, Coralia, Justo Vega…. Mercedita Valdés worked a lot with me. But I also got often hired in smaller towns: Mayarín, Tuna, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Santa Clara and others. Up to now I always have had a job, all the time, I have never slowed down since that first time that I performed with Juanito Blé in that dance, I haven’t stopped anymore. I was a professional already in the year 1939. Now I sing so, I am already old. But I have been lucky, and people like it.

Q: Tell us about working with Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
PL: Yes, I did a lot with him. I went to Holland, Finland… I recorded with him already in 1997 or 1998, with the project Afro-Cuban All Stars. But I have also worked with Maraca[OrlandoValle]. I was with him in San Francisco, L.A., in an island by Boston, New York and Miami. In L.A. I worked for five days and I recorded, but I don’t remember the name of the label. And in New York I recorded with Juan Pablo Torres, in New Jersey.

Q: Do people receive you well when you get to a city?
PL: Very, very well. I was really surprised, because I had never been in Europe and wherever I went [it was a success]…, even Switzerland. And more recently I went to Spain, where I had never been previously. I went to Madrid, Barcelona, Huelva, the Pyrinnees, which are in the border with France and I also was in Zaragoza. I went with the Grammy recording. And I went to New York with Ry Cooder… Yes, I have done many things…

Q: Do you have plans for another tour with Maraca?
PL: No, I am going to work with Barbarito Torres, a lute player. And I am also going to sign with the label Caliente with him, in February. They are going to record here, but it’s for New York.. And after that they will do a video and after that, a tour. This next tour is with Barbarito because I sang two pieces in his CD.

Q: And what else would you like to do?
PL: I want to do my own thing. I am going to sign with Caliente, although I have never signed with anybody. I want to do my own CD, with musicians from here. I am going to record it with Barbarito’s group, but I will have guests.

Q: Who do you want to work with?
PL: I am going to invite Compay Segundo if he wants to do one song or two and maybe I will also invite Omara [Portuonda]. But I haven’t sent out the invitations yet. I talked with a gentleman that sang with me when we were young, in my town, in Morón, first in a trio and then the two together. I’ve already been told that I can have him as a guest. Yes, because it’s important to remember people!

Q: Are there many people now who either want your songs or want you to sing with them?
PL: My songs have been recorded a great deal! Oscar de León recorded my "Francisco Guayabal"; and also Juan Pablo Torres recorded me, and Roberto Torres, and Arturo Sandoval recorded with a band an instrumental version of "Francisco Guayabal" in New York. And I also recorded four songs with Las Estrellas de Areíto, one of them, "Pregón de la montaña", my own composition.

Q: Did you go to school to learn music?
PL: No, I never went to school and I don’t know one thing about music. I know what I know by nature. Just like Beny Moré, who did not know one thing about music. I have done what I do since I was a little kid, without any teachers. The only person who did teach me a little bit about singing in harmony was Juanito Blé, who used to tell me: "Listen Pío, this you have to sing this way", but I had not official schooling.

Q: And you say you are not a sonero, but a montunero.
PL: Montunero. I get inspired by something and I sing it. And I don’t have more songs because I get inspirations, I record them and tomorrow I forget them. I never write anything. I have sung them, so the arrangements could be made. Now they just found a recording that I did many years ago, "Pío Leiva, el Montunero de Cuba". They always remember me, because as the saying goes, recordar es vivir ("to remember is to live").

Q: I am very interested in the subject of inspiraciones
PL: When I am recording a CD, I invent lyrics right on the spot. I always work with inspirations. Sometimes I will use some standard lyrics, because there are some that you have to use, but I always add something different.

Q: Are there young people who want to study with you?
PL: I have received requests, but I don’t know, I cannot teach anybody. I cannot be a teacher, because I didn’t have one and I don’t know anything about it. When somebedy approaches me I just tell them to sing well, that I cannot teach them, because everything I do, I get from inspiration.

Q: Are you satisified with your life, your home?
PL: Yes, things have worked out very well for me, the audience has liked me. You saw me in San Francisco, I had never been there, [and it went great].

Q: Do you want to keep travelling?
PL: Yes, and now I want to take my daughter with me, everything is
arranged.

Photo: Pío Leiva and Pedrito Calvo of Los Van Van

The light was wanning so we ended the interview. Pio is still very energetic and a joy to be around and hear perform. IIf you missed Pio Leiva with Barbarito Torres, they will be back again this year. Check the EVENTS CALENDAR.

Listen to a sound byte from his re-released CD 'El montunero de Cuba'

Interview and photos ©2000 by Julia Sewell
Transcription and translation ©2000 by Isidra Menkos
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

El montunnero de Cuba:
Pío Leiva

With recent acclaim as one of the vocalsits on the Buena Vista Social Club recordings and film as well as touring with Maraca and Barbarito Torres, 83-year-old Pío Leiva is remarkable on stage and in person. Spry and with his cigar in hand, Pío sings with great heart and jokes and shamelessly flirts with the audience. I arrived at his apartment just outside of Havana for what became an enjoyable interivew and afternoon.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your life?
Pío Leiva: I was born in in Morón, on May 5th, 1917. My name is Wilfredo Pío Leiva Pascual. When I was a kid I used to sing a lot in the patio of my own house. I would climb a tree and start singing and the next day the neighbors would tell me: "I heard you singing." One day I went out and there was a wake for a saint in a house at Narciso López Street. I went there and I found a septet playing. I stood by the door and I asked the musicians if they would allow me to sing a piece. And one of them answered: "How can I let you sing? I don’t even know you!" "I know, I said but please allow me to sing with you." Then a friend of mine, Valentín Sandoval, rest in peace, who played bongos with the group, stood up and asked the director: "Let the kid sing something." I came in, they brought me a stool, I climbed on top of it and I sang a piece that said [he starts singing]: "Negra linda, negra santa / cómo me gusta gozar / Déjame pues, mi negrita / mis pesares disipar / escuchando los cantares / de mi tierra bendecida / esta tierra maltratada / con quien yo aprendí a gozar. / Afrocubano soy, afrocubano / por mis venas corre sangre / del continente africano / por eso me gusta el son / donde canta la guitarra / los motivos de mi tierra / de la era colonial." (Pretty black woman, saint blackwoman / how I like to enjoy myself / Allow me then, / my little black women / to erase my pains / listening to the songs / of my blessed land / this abused land / whith whom I learned how to have a good time./ Afrocuban I am, afrocuban / through my veins flows the blood / of the African continent / that’s why I like the son / where the guitar sings / the themes of my land / from the colonial period.)

Then everybody applauded, and I left, and the next day a friend of mine, Juanito Blé, who also has passed away, sent somebody to get me in my house so I could go perform in a dance with him. I sang that night and I haven’t stopped ever since. And that was around the year 1930.

Q: What happened next for you?
PL: I started singing with different bands: Orquesta de Jesús Montago, Orquesta Raqueteros del Swing, Orquesta del Paseiro, Sexteto Colón… After that I had a trio, sponsored by a brand of coffee, Café el Angel, and we did radio and so on and so forth. Then I came to Havana with a band named Hermanos Martín. I came and I left again. And I came and left several times until the year 1957, when I moved here for good. Then I recorded with Esteban Antúnez. I did a sample for RCA Records, together with other six or seven singers, among them Olga Rivero. From all of those singers they accepted me and made an exclusive artist for RCA Records. I recorded the first four pieces with Bebo Valdés in the piano. After that I recorded four other pieces, also with Bebo. And then I freed myself from the label and I started to record on my own. Some of my first hits were "Con cocaleja y cangrejal," "Abre que voy," "Chapaleando," "Nadie baila como yo," "Sin caña y sin platanar" [he starts singing]: "Mi guajira se fue pa la capital / porque me quedé sin caña y sin platanar" (My sweetheart left to the capital / because I lost my cane and my banana plantation").

I was not sure yet if I wanted to stay here, but I stayed! Then I recorded my first LP with twelve pieces with Orquesta Mariano Mercerón. In that recording I sang "Me voy para Jaronú". Well, then I started to get hired to sing in cabarets, dances in the interior of the island, and so on and so forth… I had a hit with "Don Pantaleón", and I had added up to that song a ten-line stanza that I had composed, and those lyrics made me popular. I recorded with Orquesta Cosmopolita, Orquesta Monumental, Orquesta Novedades&emdash;the director was Silvio Contreras&emdash;… That was around 1957, I believe, the same year I moved here. When I hit it big with "La cocaleca" I went to Panama. Then I went to Mexico. I have traveled a lot and I know many countries. Before I moved here to Havana in 1957, I had recorded with Compay Segundo and his quartet. I recorded a lot of pieces with him, and just now they released them in a cd. One of the last recordings I did with Compay was "El Chanchá". That was many years ago! I recorded with him "Un jardinero de amor", "Anita", "Francisco Guayabal", which I had composed… and many more.

Q: When did you record "Mentiroso"?
PL: That was after the Revolution, in the year 1959 or 1960. And then I started recording on my own, I did not have a contract with anybody, I would record and get paid, and that’s how I became a hit.

Q: And what did you do during the 70’s and 80’s?
PL: I was already famous. I used to do many television programs, "Jueves Partagaz", "Casino Alegría", I did many "Palmas y cañas" for don Ramón Veló, Coralia, Justo Vega…. Mercedita Valdés worked a lot with me. But I also got often hired in smaller towns: Mayarín, Tuna, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Santa Clara and others. Up to now I always have had a job, all the time, I have never slowed down since that first time that I performed with Juanito Blé in that dance, I haven’t stopped anymore. I was a professional already in the year 1939. Now I sing so, I am already old. But I have been lucky, and people like it.

Q: Tell us about working with Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
PL: Yes, I did a lot with him. I went to Holland, Finland… I recorded with him already in 1997 or 1998, with the project Afro-Cuban All Stars. But I have also worked with Maraca[OrlandoValle]. I was with him in San Francisco, L.A., in an island by Boston, New York and Miami. In L.A. I worked for five days and I recorded, but I don’t remember the name of the label. And in New York I recorded with Juan Pablo Torres, in New Jersey.

Q: Do people receive you well when you get to a city?
PL: Very, very well. I was really surprised, because I had never been in Europe and wherever I went [it was a success]…, even Switzerland. And more recently I went to Spain, where I had never been previously. I went to Madrid, Barcelona, Huelva, the Pyrinnees, which are in the border with France and I also was in Zaragoza. I went with the Grammy recording. And I went to New York with Ry Cooder… Yes, I have done many things…

Q: Do you have plans for another tour with Maraca?
PL: No, I am going to work with Barbarito Torres, a lute player. And I am also going to sign with the label Caliente with him, in February. They are going to record here, but it’s for New York.. And after that they will do a video and after that, a tour. This next tour is with Barbarito because I sang two pieces in his CD.

Q: And what else would you like to do?
PL: I want to do my own thing. I am going to sign with Caliente, although I have never signed with anybody. I want to do my own CD, with musicians from here. I am going to record it with Barbarito’s group, but I will have guests.

Q: Who do you want to work with?
PL: I am going to invite Compay Segundo if he wants to do one song or two and maybe I will also invite Omara [Portuonda]. But I haven’t sent out the invitations yet. I talked with a gentleman that sang with me when we were young, in my town, in Morón, first in a trio and then the two together. I’ve already been told that I can have him as a guest. Yes, because it’s important to remember people!

Q: Are there many people now who either want your songs or want you to sing with them?
PL: My songs have been recorded a great deal! Oscar de León recorded my "Francisco Guayabal"; and also Juan Pablo Torres recorded me, and Roberto Torres, and Arturo Sandoval recorded with a band an instrumental version of "Francisco Guayabal" in New York. And I also recorded four songs with Las Estrellas de Areíto, one of them, "Pregón de la montaña", my own composition.

Q: Did you go to school to learn music?
PL: No, I never went to school and I don’t know one thing about music. I know what I know by nature. Just like Beny Moré, who did not know one thing about music. I have done what I do since I was a little kid, without any teachers. The only person who did teach me a little bit about singing in harmony was Juanito Blé, who used to tell me: "Listen Pío, this you have to sing this way", but I had not official schooling.

Q: And you say you are not a sonero, but a montunero.
PL: Montunero. I get inspired by something and I sing it. And I don’t have more songs because I get inspirations, I record them and tomorrow I forget them. I never write anything. I have sung them, so the arrangements could be made. Now they just found a recording that I did many years ago, "Pío Leiva, el Montunero de Cuba". They always remember me, because as the saying goes, recordar es vivir ("to remember is to live").

Q: I am very interested in the subject of inspiraciones
PL: When I am recording a CD, I invent lyrics right on the spot. I always work with inspirations. Sometimes I will use some standard lyrics, because there are some that you have to use, but I always add something different.

Q: Are there young people who want to study with you?
PL: I have received requests, but I don’t know, I cannot teach anybody. I cannot be a teacher, because I didn’t have one and I don’t know anything about it. When somebedy approaches me I just tell them to sing well, that I cannot teach them, because everything I do, I get from inspiration.

Q: Are you satisified with your life, your home?
PL: Yes, things have worked out very well for me, the audience has liked me. You saw me in San Francisco, I had never been there, [and it went great].

Q: Do you want to keep travelling?
PL: Yes, and now I want to take my daughter with me, everything is
arranged.

Photo: Pío Leiva and Pedrito Calvo of Los Van Van

The light was wanning so we ended the interview. Pio is still very energetic and a joy to be around and hear perform. IIf you missed Pio Leiva with Barbarito Torres, they will be back again this year. Check the EVENTS CALENDAR.

Listen to a sound byte from his re-released CD 'El montunero de Cuba'

Interview and photos ©2000 by Julia Sewell
Transcription and translation ©2000 by Isidra Menkos
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.