Xavier Cugat
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Xavier Cugat (Template:IPAc-en; {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 1 January 1900<ref name="yob"/> – 27 October 1990) was an American musician and bandleader who was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. Originally from Girona, Spain, he spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba, before arriving in New York City in 1915. A trained violinist and arranger, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria before and after World War II. Also a restaurateur in West Hollywood, he and his band appeared in numerous motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a cartoonist. The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Library of Catalonia.
Life and careerEdit
Cugat was born Francisco de Asís Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeu<ref name=XC>Xavier Cugat official webpage, xaviercugat.com; accessed 8 November 2015.</ref> in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1900 (although he would later claim to have been born in 1901).<ref name=XC/> His family emigrated to Cuba when he was three years old.<ref name="LAT Obit">Template:Cite news</ref> He studied classical violin and worked as a violinist at the age of nine in a silent movie theater to help pay for his education. He was first chair violinist for the Teatro Nacional Symphonic Orchestra. When he was not performing, he started drawing caricatures.<ref name="Groppa2018">Template:Cite book</ref> On 6 July 1915 he and his family arrived in New York City on the SS Havana. Cugat appeared in recitals with Enrico Caruso, playing violin solos.<ref name=XC/>
In the 1920s, he led a band that played often at the Coconut Grove, a club in Los Angeles. Cugat's friend, Charlie Chaplin, visited the club to dance the tango, so Cugat added tangos to the band's performances.<ref name="Harris" /> Seeing how popular the dance was becoming, Cugat convinced the owner to hire South American dancers to give tango lessons. This, too, became popular, and Cugat made the dancers part of his orchestra. In 1928 he turned his act into the film Xavier Cugat and His Gigolos.<ref name="Harris">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Profile Template:Webarchive LegacyRecordings.com; accessed 8 November 2015.</ref>
He worked for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist. His caricatures were nationally syndicated. They appeared in Photoplay magazine beginning with the November 1927 issue, under the byline "de Bru." His older brother, Francis, was an artist of some note, having painted cover art for F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.<ref name="Gatsby">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1931, Cugat took his band to New York for the 1931 opening of the Waldorf–Astoria hotel. He replaced Jack Denny as leader of the hotel's resident band. For sixteen years, he led the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra (1933-1949), shuttling between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next 30 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> One of his trademark gestures was to hold a Chihuahua while he waved his baton with the other arm.<ref name="Autobiography">Template:Cite book</ref>
His music career led to appearing in the films In Gay Madrid (1930), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Bathing Beauty (1944), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), Holiday in Mexico (1946), A Date with Judy (1948), On an Island with You (1948), and Chicago Syndicate (1955).<ref name="Harris"/>
Cugat owned and operated the Mexican restaurant Casa Cugat in West Hollywood. The restaurant was frequented by Hollywood celebrities and featured two singing guitarists who would visit each table and play diners' favorite songs upon request.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The restaurant began operations in the 1940s and closed in 1986.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The restaurant's exterior and a fanciful depiction of its interior can be found in scenes in the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter in which Cugat has a substantial role playing himself. A brief scene revolving around the restaurant can also be seen in the earlier 1943 film The Heat's On, also starring Cugat as himself.
Personal life and deathEdit
Cugat was married five times. His first marriage was to Rita Montaner (1918–20), his second was to his band vocalist Carmen Castillo (1929–46), his third to actress Lorraine Allen (1947–52), his fourth to singer Abbe Lane (1952–64), and his fifth to Spanish guitarist and comic actress Charo (1966–78).
Cugat became a naturalized American citizen in 1941.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1972 Cugat returned to Catalonia,<ref name="LAT Obit" /> living in a suite at the Hotel El Palace in Barcelona, which, at the time, was the Ritz Hotel. He died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona and was buried in his native Girona. He was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2001.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
RecordingsEdit
Template:External media Cugat recorded for Columbia (1940s and 1950s, and Epic), RCA Victor (1930s and 1950s), Mercury (1951–52 and the 1960s), and Decca (1960s). Dinah Shore made her first recordings as a vocalist with Cugat in 1939 and 1940 for RCA Victor. In 1940 his recording of "Perfidia" became a hit. Cugat followed trends closely, making records for the conga, the mambo, the cha-cha-cha, and the twist when these dances were popular. Several songs that he recorded, including "Perfidia", were used in the Wong Kar-wai films Days of Being Wild and 2046. In 1943, "Brazil" was Cugat's most successful chart hit. It spent seven weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard magazine National Best Selling Retail Records chart behind Harry James's song "I've Heard That Song Before".<ref name="billboard1943">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 1950s he made several recordings with his wife, singer Abbe Lane.
His orchestra included Desi Arnaz, Lina Romay, Abbe Lane, Tito Rodriguez, Yma Sumac, Miguelito Valdés,<ref name="Harris" /> Frank Berardi, Gene Lorello, George Lopez, Glenn E. Brown, Henry Greher, Isabello Marerro, James English, John Haluko, Joseph Gutierrez, Luis Castellanos, Manuel Paxtot, Oswaldo Oliveira, Otto Bolívar, Otto Garcia, Rafael Angelo, Richard Hoffman, Robert De Joseph, and Robert Jones.
DiscographyEdit
- The Lady in Red (RCA Victor, 1935)<ref>"The Lady in Red" by Xavier Cugat and His Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, Written by Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel, Recorded April 1, 1935, and released April 24, 1935, on Victor 25012-A, 78 RPM singleTemplate:SndSecondHandSongs</ref>
- One, Two, Three, Kick – Congas (Victor, 1941)
- Xavier Cugat's Mexico (Columbia, 1944)
- Cugat's Favorite Rhumbas (Columbia, 1945)
- In Santiago, Chile (Tain't Chilly At All) (Columbia], 1948)
- Siesta (Columbia, 1948)
- Tropical Bouquets (Columbia, 1949)
- Relaxing with Cugat (Columbia, 1952)
- Dancetime with Cugat (RCA Victor, 1953)
- Cugat's Favorite Rhumbas (Columbia, 1954)
- Ole! (Columbia, 1955)
- Mambo at the Waldorf (Columbia, 1955)
- Cha Cha Cha (Columbia, 1955)
- Cugatango! (10" record) (Columbia, 1956)
- Bread, Love and Cha Cha Cha (Columbia, 1957)
- Waltzes but by Cugat! (Columbia, 1957)
- Mambo! (Music for Latin Lovers) (Mercury, 1957)
- The King Plays Some Aces (RCA Victor, 1958)
- Cugat Calvalcade (Columbia, 1958)
- Cugat in Spain (RCA Victor, 1959)
- That Latin Beat! (RCA Victor, 1959)
- Chile Con Cugie (RCA Victor, 1959)
- The Latin Rhythms of Xavier Cugat (Harmony, 1960)
- Cugat in France, Spain, and Italy (RCA Victor, 1960)
- The Best of Cugat (Mercury, 1961)
- Viva Cugat! (Mercury, 1961)
- Twist with Cugat (Mercury, 1962)
- Cugat Plays Continental Hits (Mercury, 1962)
- Most Popular Movie Hits As Styled By Cugat (Mercury, 1962)
- Cugat Plays Continental Hits (Mercury, 1962)
- Cugi's Cocktails (Mercury, 1963)
- Cugat's Golden Goodies (Mercury, 1963)
- Cugi's Cocktails (Mercury, 1963)
- Cugat Caricatures (Mercury, 1964)
- Plays the Music of Ernesto Lecuona (Mercury, 1964)
- Midnight Roses (Decca, 1968)
- The Cugat Touch (Springboard, 1976)
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Personal papers of Xavier Cugat, Biblioteca de Catalunya; accessed 8 November 2015
- About Xavier Cugat,
- Xavier Cugat recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.