Pío Leyva
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Wilfredo Leyva Pascual (Morón, May 5, 1917 - Havana, March 22, 2006), known as Pío Leyva, was a Cuban singer, legend of popular song. He is the author of the guaracha “El mentiroso”. He is the author of 25 albums since he signed his first contract with RCA in 1950.
He has performed alongside greats of Cuban music such as Benny Moré, Bebo Valdés and Noro Morales and was a member of Compay Segundo and his Muchachos. He also associated with other soneros of his generation and formed the Buena Vista Social Club. He became famous not only as a performer but as a composer. Some of his works were sung by the famous Benny Moré and he became known by the nickname of El Montunero de Cuba.
His old friends and the public remember him as a singer of great ease and improvisation, with an enviable handling of the verse and the tenth. The decade of the fifties called by some as the Golden Decade for its many excellent dance groups where Pío Leyva is one of the most emblematic figures performing and recording profusely with others of great prestige such as Bebo Valdés, Esteban Antune, Severino Ramos, Niño Rivera , Joaquín Mendive, Emiliano Peñalver and Mariano Mercerón. This is the time when Pío consolidates his fame as El montunero de Cuba, interpreting guarachas, sones, boleros, rumbas, mambos, merengues and plenas where titles such as «Cuidado con los callos», «El cangrejal», «Domitila », «The swallows arrived», «Anabacoa» and «El bombón de Elena».
The titles "Francisco Guayabal" and "Mulata" were hits in the voice of Benny Moré, and Sibanicú was popularized by Roberto Faz and his group. He participated in a relevant way in the Buena Vista Social Club and AfroCuban All Stars projects, led by Ry Cooder, Nick Gold, Juan de Marcos González, Omara Portuondo, Ibrahím Ferrer, Rubén González, Compay Segundo, Barbarito Torres and El Guajiro Mirabal, among others.
When he thought about retirement at 78 years of age, he was still in shape, he associated with other soneros of his generation and formed the Buena Vista Social Club, a group of musicians that became legendary, in 1998 they rose with a Grammy in the category of traditional music and whose story was made into a film by Wim Wenders. Cuban music, the children of Buena Vista Social Club was one of his last musical-cinematic works in 2003. Film made in Cuba and Japan that brought together the best young artists of the 90's generation: Roberto Carcassés, Samuel Formell , Mayito Rivera, Osdalgia, Feliciano Arango, Alexander Abreu, Julito Padrón, citing a few.