Bartolomé Moré was born in 1919 in Santa Isabel de las Lajas in central Cuba, as the oldest of 18 children. He learned to play the guitar as a child and made his own one out of a board and some string. By working in the sugar cane fields he earned enough money to be able to buy himself a decent guitar.

He moved to Havana in 1940 and made his living by singing in bars and cafés, passing the hat. The breakthrough came through a radio competition that he won. He got his first stable job and sang in the radio with different groups.

When Cirio Rodríguez of Trio Matamoros heard Moré sing in the bar El Temple, he was very impressed and shortly after, Moré started to sing with the group that he would make several recordings with. During 1945 they went to Mexico, where he stayed when the group returned to Cuba. There he was informed that donkeys were called “bartolo” and that he, if he wished to stay, might want to change his name. “Well, then from now on my name is Benny, Benny Moré”, was his answer. Before returning to Cuba he made several recordings with Perez Prado, that would be very famous.

At his return in 1950 he hade made himself a name in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Brasil and Puerto Rico, but was more or less unknown in Cuba. He started to make recordings and played in the radio with Bebo Valdés in a programme where the presenter gave him the name “el bárbaro del ritmo”.

He started the group Banda Gigante, that consisted of no less than 40 musicians. Moré could not arrange music, but he resolved it by singing parts of the music to the band. They toured in Central America and played at the Oscar ceremonies in the United States, but when he was offered to make a tour in Europe he declined. He had been in three air accidents.

When he died of cirrosis in 1963, only 43 years old, an estimated 100.000 fans attended his funeral. Still today he is honoured by a festival in Cienfuegos that bears his name and many Cuban singers refer to el Benny in their songs.

Sources: National Geographic, Wikipedia