Sonora Nelson Ferreyra

The records Nelson Ferreya recorded at the MAG studios display his passion for Cuban music and particularly for guaracha, accompanied by the pianist Cano Romero, a personal friend who had played with him from the early days of his career, and would go on to find his own orchestra some years later.

Kiko Hernández, the lead singer, joined Ferreyra in almost all his future projects, until his early death in the seventies. “Guaracheros” was released at the end of 1961. Out of the six versions on the LP, four are of Cuban origin: 'Quinto llamado' and 'Óyeme Antonia', belonging to the traditional Conjunto Gloria Matancera; 'Ola!' by the well-known musician José Curbelo; and 'El dulcesito' by Havana-born Nelson Navarro. The songs 'Mucho ritmo' by the Puerto Ricans Moncho Leña y los Ases del Ritmo and 'Los cadetes navales', a classic by the Colombian master Lucho Bermúdez, complete the half dozen.

Few countries outside Cuba embraced guaracha as enthusiastically as Peru. Pancho Acosta, Króffer Jiménez, Oswaldo Barreto and Nelson Ferreyra himself kept the genre alive with their compositions in the sixties and, in the following decade, several of the classics of the Peruvian cumbia movement are really guarachas composed in different parts of the country. ‘Guaracheros' (Kiko Hernández and Pablo Villanueva) opens the LP, a highly crafted composition by Cano Romero. Maintaining the dance level, two songs by Nelson Ferreyra follow: 'Con cencerro y timbal' and 'Fiesta en el aire'. The references to Venezuela in the lyrics are not accidental, as the LP was also distributed there, where it sold very well.