Cuban Pianists · Raul Blanco Music
You play his lines even if you have never heard his name.
Lilí Martínez
The pianist who built the Cuban piano solo out of Chopin
GUANTÁNAMO 1915 — HAVANA 1990
If you have ever played a son or salsa montuno, part of it comes from this pianist from Guantánamo: Luis "Lilí" Martínez Griñán (1915–1990). His music is still being played; his name is not nearly as well known. That is what this page is for: to put a name and a face to the pianist behind those lines.
His life, in eight stops
- 1915 — Born in Guantánamo on August 19. Starts piano at his sister Ana Emilia's academy; after that he mostly teaches himself.
- 1935 — Plays with Corsino Calzado's orchestra at the Guantánamo Naval Base.
- 1937 — Founds his own band: Los Champions de Lilí Martínez. Dancers fight over them.
- 1945 — Arrives in Havana: joins Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto, in the chair Rubén González leaves behind.
- 1949 — Records Me Boté de Guaño with Arsenio — the montuno further down this page.
- 1950 — Arsenio leaves for New York. Lilí stays: the band becomes Chappottín y sus Estrellas.
- 1983 — Concierto para tres pianos is filmed, with Chucho Valdés and Frank Fernández: the only footage of him playing that anyone has found.
- 1990 — Dies in Havana on August 26. In 1995 his remains are brought back to Guantánamo.
Arsenio's piano chair
Lilí started at his sister Ana Emilia's academy and after that he mostly taught himself. He played at the Guantánamo Naval Base, founded his own band —Los Champions— and in 1945 he reached the chair that changed everything: the piano in Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto, when Rubén González —yes, the one from Buena Vista— left the job. Same chair, two legends.
When Arsenio left for New York around 1950, Lilí stayed in Cuba and the band became Chappottín y sus Estrellas. A lot of his big recordings come from those years.
The secret: Chopin
When Lilí joined the conjunto, Arsenio put him on solos. And Lilí did not feel sure of himself — he had never improvised like that. He came out of classical training. What he did next is the famous part of the story, and he told it himself: he took Chopin and adapted him to the Cuban style to build his solos.
That is where those virtuoso solos of his come from: phrases and repeated patterns moving across the keyboard chromatically or in sequence — Chopin's devices — set on top of the son. That is how the Cuban-style piano solo got built, the one everybody adapted afterwards.
"His feeling for romanticism drew me in… The sweetness of his compositions always pulled at me enormously." Lilí Martínez, on Chopin
"What I did was… play… sweetly, like Chopin." Lilí Martínez
He did not stop at the influence: he wrote his own Cuban version of Chopin, a piece he called "Pianotaciones".
Me Boté de Guaño, on paper
All of this comes out of "Me Boté de Guaño" (Arsenio Rodríguez y su Conjunto, 1949 — Lilí on piano), which I transcribed for my course. Follow the song: first the line locked to the coro, and when the tune lifts, the real montuno.
This is not a montuno: it is the coro line, locked tight to the bass and the voice. It shows what Lilí usually did — more locking in, less inventing.
How he thought about music
"Then everybody wants to embellish… the bongó off on its own and the tumbadora embellishing too. It cannot be everybody." Lilí Martínez, personal interview
"If I were to lead a conjunto, I should lead it the way Arsenio led his — with more discipline." Lilí Martínez
Everything in its place, every solo in its moment. You can hear that in his montunos: clear, singable, not one note too many.
His compositions
- 01 Alto Songo (Se quema La Maya)
- 02 Se acabaron los guapos en Yateras
- 03 No me llores más
- 04 La Protesta de Baraguá
- 05 Vacuno
- 06 Mami me gustó
- 07 Llévatelo todo
- 08 Chicharronero
- …and on to about thirty-five. That is EcuRed's count: son montuno, bolero, guaracha, even merengue.
Listen to Lilí
- 1948 · WITH ARSENIO Tintorera ya llegó SMC 1206, Havana, March 1948. The conjunto at full steam, with Lilí on piano. ▶ LISTEN HERE
- WITH ARSENIO ¡So caballo! From the same guapos record. Lilí is on piano here too. ▶ LISTEN HERE
- HIS OWN TUNE Alto Songo One of his most quoted pieces, with Chappottín y sus Estrellas. ▶ LISTEN HERE
- 1949 · HIS OWN TUNE No me llores más Arsenio's conjunto recorded it, with Lilí on piano. His real name is printed on the record label: Luis Martínez Griñán. ▶ LISTEN HERE
- 1983 · HIS ONLY VIDEO Los tres pianos Lilí between Chucho Valdés and Frank Fernández. This is the only known footage of Lilí playing: the short film Concierto para tres pianos, by Héctor Veitía. Seven years before he died. ▶ WATCH IT HERE
The legacy
The ones who came after studied him: Chucho Valdés, Frank Fernández, Emiliano Salvador. Papo Lucca considered him his teacher. His biographer, Ben Lapidus, put it this way: "there is a lot of Lilí in Chucho's piano".
As a rule, when a son montuno sounds "classic" to you, you are hearing the vocabulary this generation wrote down — and Lilí wrote more of it than most.
NOW GO PRACTICE!
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