Biography
The passing of Cuban vocalist Polo Montañez on November 26, 2002, following a fatal car crash, sent waves of sorrow through Latin music listeners everywhere. In Havana, devotees of the self-described “Guajiro Natural”—a Homegrown Country Boy—had tracked radio updates on his condition hour by hour, and his death was felt as a collective loss across the nation.
Fernando Borrego Linares entered the world on June 5, 1955, in the countryside of Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The stage name he later adopted, while still earning his living as a coal worker and truck driver who performed only in his spare time, evokes the verdant slopes southeast of the capital, where he remained throughout his life. Those same slopes supplied the setting for his buoyant strain of guajiro music, characterized by lyrics he described as “clean, bright, precise,” devoted to themes of love and friendship; an unrestrained blend of island dance rhythms such as bachata, son, bolero, and guaracha; memorable melodies and arpeggiated passages delivered on the Cuban tres; and, crowning the whole, Montañez’s own gravelly, sun-worn tenor, often likened to that of the revered Beny Moré.
When José da Silva of the French imprint Lusafrica discovered him, Montañez was transformed almost instantly from an occasional resort performer into a global star. The opening single from his 2000 album Guajiro Natural, “Un Montón de Estrellas,” offered a bittersweet portrait of a lover so lost that he would have ascended to the sky to retrieve “a mountain of stars” had his changeable partner demanded it. Listeners who did not join the call-and-response chorus at the close were already dancing, and countless new followers of guajiro music were thereby gained.
Guajiro Natural earned platinum status in Colombia almost at once and achieved comparable results in Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and Mexico. By 2002, Montañez and his ensemble were filling venues from one end of Cuba to the other, among them a Havana concert before 100,000 enthusiasts. That summer saw the release of the next album, Guitarra Mía. Montañez was preparing to travel to Mexico to promote the record when the accident took place, leaving his wife critically injured and claiming the life of her son.
A final collection titled Memoria, consisting largely of previously unheard songs, appeared in June 2004.
Fernando Borrego Linares entered the world on June 5, 1955, in the countryside of Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The stage name he later adopted, while still earning his living as a coal worker and truck driver who performed only in his spare time, evokes the verdant slopes southeast of the capital, where he remained throughout his life. Those same slopes supplied the setting for his buoyant strain of guajiro music, characterized by lyrics he described as “clean, bright, precise,” devoted to themes of love and friendship; an unrestrained blend of island dance rhythms such as bachata, son, bolero, and guaracha; memorable melodies and arpeggiated passages delivered on the Cuban tres; and, crowning the whole, Montañez’s own gravelly, sun-worn tenor, often likened to that of the revered Beny Moré.
When José da Silva of the French imprint Lusafrica discovered him, Montañez was transformed almost instantly from an occasional resort performer into a global star. The opening single from his 2000 album Guajiro Natural, “Un Montón de Estrellas,” offered a bittersweet portrait of a lover so lost that he would have ascended to the sky to retrieve “a mountain of stars” had his changeable partner demanded it. Listeners who did not join the call-and-response chorus at the close were already dancing, and countless new followers of guajiro music were thereby gained.
Guajiro Natural earned platinum status in Colombia almost at once and achieved comparable results in Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and Mexico. By 2002, Montañez and his ensemble were filling venues from one end of Cuba to the other, among them a Havana concert before 100,000 enthusiasts. That summer saw the release of the next album, Guitarra Mía. Montañez was preparing to travel to Mexico to promote the record when the accident took place, leaving his wife critically injured and claiming the life of her son.
A final collection titled Memoria, consisting largely of previously unheard songs, appeared in June 2004.
Albums
