Birth name Mercedes Valdés Granit Occupation(s) Musician Years active 1949–1996 | Genres Santería music, afro Instruments Vocals Albums Aché | |
Also known as La Pequeña Aché de Cuba Born September 24, 1922
Havana, Cuba ( 1922-09-24 ) Died 13 June 1996, Havana, Cuba Record labels EGREM, Panart, Victor Talking Machine Company Associated acts Mongo Santamaría, Obdulio Morales, Guillermo Barreto Similar Obdulio Morales, Guillermo Barreto, Mongo Santamaría, Frank Emilio Flynn, Alberto Zayas | ||
Mercedes Valdés Granit (September 24, 1922 – June 13, 1996), better known as Merceditas Valdés, was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her recording career, which continued until her death in 1996, was especially prolific in the 1950s and 1980s.
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Early life
Valdés was born in Cayo Hueso, Centro Habana, on September 24, 1922. Her father was Ángel Valdés, known as Angelito "El Dichoso" (The Lucky One), a musician in Ignacio Piñeiro's influential rumba ensemble Los Roncos. Unlike her mother, his father did not want her daughter to become a musician, so she started her career as a nun in the black congregation Hermanas Oblatas de la Providencia. However, she soon began to stand out as a singer, winning several prizes awarded by the radio show Corte Suprema del Arte, where she sang songs such as "Babalú" by Margarita Lecuona. She then joined the orchestra of pianist and musicologist Obdulio Morales thanks to his sisters, who lived with Valdés at the congregation. With Morales, Valdés gained exposure due to their performances which were broadcast by Radio Cadena Suaritos on Sundays. In 1944, she met musicologist Fernando Ortiz, one of the main exponents of the Afrocubanismo movement, who employed Valdés in his lectures about Afro-Cuban culture to exemplify the African heritage (especially Yoruba) of Cuban music. Thus, Valdés became an akpwón, a Santería singer, which earned her the nickname La Pequeña Aché de Cuba, given to her by Ortiz.
First recordings and rise to fame
Valdés made her first recordings of Santería music in April 1949 for Victor. She sang in the same sessions as Evelia Collazo, another female akpwón and the mother of percussionist Julito Collazo. The recordings were credited to Grupo Afro-Cubano. In 1951, Valdés sang in the Rapsodia negra show directed by Enrique González Mántici at the CMQ radio station. During the early 1950s, Valdés recorded more Santería tunes with the so-called Coro Yoruba y Tambores Batá, an ensemble directed by batá drummer Jesús Pérez and featuring other drummers such as Virgilio Ramírez, Trinidad Torregrosa and Carlos Aldama, as well as other singers: Celia Cruz, Caridad Suárez and Eugenio de la Rosa. They recorded several songs for Panart, appearing in the 1954 LP Santero. She also recorded two EPs for SMC (New York City's Spanish Music Center): Cantos oriundos lucumí (Vols. 1 & 2).
Apart from recording, Valdés took part in several tours, some with Ernesto Lecuona's company, performing in Venezuela among other Latin American countries. In 1954, she sang "Ogguere" and "Bembé" with Gilberto Valdés' orchestra at Carnegie Hall. In Cuba, she became the star of the Zun Zun Danbaé show at the Cabaret Sans Souci. She then worked at the Tropicana Club. In 1957, Valdés appeared in the Afro-Cuban themed film Yambaó. In the late 1950s she married famed timbalero Guillermo Barreto.
Late career and death
After the Cuban Revolution, the commercialization of Afro-Cuban music was restricted. Nonetheless, Valdés managed to make several recordings in the early 1960s before effectively halting her recording career. Between 1959 and 1960, she recorded with percussionist Mongo Santamaría. In 1960 and 1961, she recorded carnival music with Alberto Zayas for Impresora Cubana de Discos (ICD). In 1964, she recorded an album in collaboration with Los Bucaneros under the direction of Rafael Somavilla and Adolfo Guzmán at the former Panart studios for EGREM.
Valdés resumed her recording career in 1982 with the recording of Aché for Siboney, an imprint of EGREM. The album featured Grupo Isupo Irawo (a new incarnation of the Coro Yoruba y Tambores Batá) and Los Amigos (an ensemble directed by pianist Frank Emilio Flynn and featuring Guillermo Barreto). Several LPs followed: Aché II (1988), Aché III (1989) and Aché IV (1995), the latter in collaboration with Yoruba Andabo. In 1988, she toured Spain and Canada with Sergio Vitier's Grupo Oru. Her last recordings were released in 1998 by Ralph Mercado on the CD Merceditas Valdés with her Big Band - The Final Recordings.
Merceditas Valdés died on June 13, 1996 in her hometown of Havana, almost five years after the death of her husband.