The illustrious cuatrista
Nicanor Zayas dies

                                                                                                     foto por Juan Sotomayor

 We've been informed that the distinguished elder cuatrista Nicanor Zayas Berrios passed away just at the New Year of 2009. Even though Zayas never recorded commercially, he is considered one of the most respected expert cuatrista of our times. Zayas was one of the first cuatristas that took the cuatro out of the jíbaro music sphere, opening its repertory to world and pop music of his day. His musical tastes were broad and all-encompassing: it included South American, North American and Mexican music--even movie tunes.
     Zayas, who gave several interviews to the Cuatro Project and participated in several of its live events, appears en both Cuatro Project video documentaries. It was our great privilege to have known him and to document his musical career. We received a treasury of the distinguished maestro's home recordings from the cuatrista Ray Vazquez, who was a longtime loyal friend of the great master. We are putting together a webpage dedicated to the maestro that will feature the stories he told us during our interviews. Immediately below we've selected several sample of the music of Nicanor Zayas in our collection, recorded informally when the maestro was at the height of his musical powers:

El Cuatro del Cuarteto by Heriberto Torres	A Guaracha: Mi Prieta by Felipe Rosario Goyco
A Danza:Who can help us identify it?	The Cuban danzón Salón Mexico