Fernando Storch (1904–2001) first brought the dance rhythms of Havana, Cuba, to North American listeners through his ensemble Cuarteto Caney. The group functioned as a training ground for several rising figures in Latin music, among them Panchito Riset, Frank "Machito" Grillo, Pablo "Tito" Rodriguez, Johnny Lopez, and Alfredito Valdes, and played a central part in spreading the Latin jazz style known as tumbao across the globe.
Storch assembled Cuarteto Caney soon after arriving in the United States in the early 1930s, patterning the band after Cuba’s longstanding soneros ensembles. Although anchored in the practices of traditional tumbao septets, he expanded the format substantially, frequently stripping arrangements down to percussion and vocals alone.
Columbia signed the group in 1936. Under that contract Cuarteto Caney proved remarkably productive, committing more than one hundred tunes to disc before 1942. The ensemble stayed active until the mid-1970s, when Storch stepped away and took up residence in Jacksonville, Florida.
