Lágrimas Negras

The bolero-son that taught the two forms to share a single heartbreak. Miguel Matamoros writes it around 1930 and cuts it with the Trío Matamoros — a lament...

The bolero-son that taught the two forms to share a single heartbreak. Miguel Matamoros writes it around 1930 and cuts it with the Trío Matamoros — a lament that opens like a bolero and then breaks into the swing of a son. Its melody is so durable it survives every re-dress: Benny Moré widens it into big-band mambo, and decades later Bebo Valdés and Diego El Cigala strip it back to piano and a flamenco voice on the acclaimed 'Lágrimas Negras' (2003), proving the tune belongs as much to Andalusia as to Santiago de Cuba. La Sonora Carruseles then hands it back to the dancefloor. Grief, but grief you can move to.

Composer

Miguel Matamoros

Year

1930

Lineage

bolero-son