Ignacio Piñeiro Martínez (Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, 21 May 1888 – 12 March 1969) was a black Cuban musician and composer whose career started in rumba

Cuban Rumba

In Cuban music, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers...

, and flowered in the rise of the son. He was one of the most important composers of son music; in total he wrote about 327 numbers, mostly sones.

Piñeiro was a brilliant rumbero who worked with musical groups from 1903 onwards. In 1906, was a member of the Timbre de Oro clave y guaguancó vocal group, and later directed Los Roncos guaguancó

Guaguancó

Guaguancó is a sub-genre of Cuban rumba, a complex rhythmic music and dance style. The traditional line-up consists of:* three drums, similar to conga drums: the tumba , llamador , and quinto...

 group. He was taught the double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 by María Teresa Vera

María Teresa Vera

María Teresa Vera was a Cuban singer, guitarist and composer. She was an outstanding example of the Cuban trova movement....

, and in 1926 he was a member of her band Sexteto Occidente, which recorded in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In 1927 he founded the Sexteto Nacional; its original name was El Sexteto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro, and he wrote all its original numbers. Later, adding a trumpet, it became Septeto Nacional

Septeto Nacional

Septeto Nacional , or the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro, is a group credited with expanding the Son musical style before Arsenio Rodríguez. It added the trumpet to percussion, vocals, and strings. The group started as a sextet in 1927 in Central Havana...

.

For financial reasons, he quit the group in 1935, and it was led by the trumpet player Lazaro Herrera until the group disbanded in 1937. Piñeiro became for some years the leader of Los Roncos, a rumba

Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...

group, for whom he also wrote pieces. The Septeto Nacional was recreated several times from 1954 onwards, initially under Piñeiro's direction. It still exists.

Compositions

• Donde estabas a noche (1925)
• Esas no son cubanas
• Mentira
• Bardo
• No jueges con los santos.
• Las cuatro palomas.
• Noche de conga.
• Coco mai mai.
• Suavecito
• Echale salsita (written on a train to Chicago in 1930, this was the first use of the world "salsa" in son, a term which would alter be used to market a large percentage of Cuban derived music)
• Lindo Yambu
• Guaguanco callejero