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Graciela

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Graciela, in full Felipa Graciela Pérez y Gutiérrez, was a Cuban singer of Cuban music and Latin jazz. She was born on 23 August 1915 in Havana and grew up in the Afro-Cuban district of Jesús María. In the 1930s and 1940s she was for ten years the lead singer of Orquesta Anacaona, an all-women orchestra, before leaving Cuba for the United States. She performed all over the world, together with her adopted older brother Frank Grillo, known as Machito.

Music and breakthrough

In 1943 she was brought to New York by Mario Bauzá, when Machito had to join the army. She became the orchestra's lead singer until Machito returned in 1944, and from that moment the three stood on stage together until their split in 1975. Over thirty-two years they travelled through the United States and the rest of the world and, from 1946, played at the Palladium Ballroom. Her best-known recordings are Esta es Graciela, Íntimo y Sentimental and Esa Soy Yo, Yo Soy Así. The album Afro-Cuban Jazz also appeared in 1985.

Influence

In 2006 she received the Chico O'Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award from Latin Jazz USA. She died in 2010 in New York, aged 94, and was regarded as the first lady of Latin jazz. With Machito and Bauzá she helped bring Cuban rhythms and jazz together.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording of Graciela with Machito's orchestra and notice how the percussionists play a Cuban rhythm while the horns answer in a jazz-like way. Hear how her voice rises above it all.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists