Xavier

Xavier Cugat Mingall

Girona , 1900
Barcelona , 27 d'octubre de 1990

Composer i Performer

Composer

He was a promoter and music director who became internationally renowned for appearing in Hollywood films leading orchestras that popularized Latin rhythms. Thanks to his popularity and television appearances, he produced a large discography. Her family moved to Havana in 1904 and in 1915, to New York. After some time working as a classical violinist, at the end of 1920 he devoted himself to composition of dance music and developed an aesthetic that adapted the rumba, mambo or bolero to the public of the United States. Xavier Cugat Orchestra, which included musicians from Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico, were the resident orchestra of the Waldorf-Astoria since 1933. In the 1940s, he worked in productions of musical films next to F. Sinatra, R. Hayworth, F. Astaire, C. Miranda and E. Williams. He was also a cartoonist and entrepreneur, and promoter of singers such as Lina Romay or Abbe Lane, her fourth wive. Installed in Catalonia at the end of the 1970s, he enjoyed a great popularity with Gran Orquestra Xavier Cugat Caravana Show.