Hiram Remón, renowned for his encyclopedic knowledge of the vocal traditions of Latin America, passed at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY Saturday June 14 of natural causes. His death was confirmed by his daughter Malena Remón, he was 93 years old. Besides his vocal prowess, he was also celebrated for his mastery of small hand percussion. Saxophonist, flutist Peter Brainin stated, “Hiram was a brilliant, beautiful and gentle soul, an incredible singer and musician. His encyclopedic knowledge and mastery of music of all the Americas and the Caribbean was formidable and reflected his love of music and humanity in general. And he was one of the most lovable people I’ve ever worked with - always with a warm hug, a hilarious sometimes ribald joke or comment and a twinkle in his eye. We always called each other tio which means uncle in Spanish. I will really miss este tio mio.” Noted jazz pianist, composer, arranger John Dimartino stated "Hiram Remon personified the joy of music. Like a child hearing a musical sound for the very first time, there was joy in every note. Whether singing or playing percussion, Hiram always felt a profound gratitude for the privilege of creating music. Magically, he never lost his wonder and fascination.”
MÚSICA
That could not be truer as family members stated that the first word he uttered as a child was “música.” While the canon of what is known as the Great American Songbook is extensive, challenging vocalists in the jazz and cabaret worlds to be constantly aware of its historic all encompassing repertoire, Mr. Remón achieved something that can be considered monumental - total command of the vast repertoire of Latin America and the Caribbean. It comprises an amazing catalogue of songs from 22 countries as well as repertoire from Spain in addition to musical traditions from French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Curaçao, Guyana, Surinam (Netherlands), Belize, the English speaking Antigua, Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. I once wagered him that he couldn’t sing a melody from each country. It was a losing bet.
COSTEÑO - FROM THE COAST
Hiram Avife Remón Lugo was born on July 12, 1932 in the small Colombian town of Rio Frio near the bustling city of Santa Marta on the Atlantic coast. His father Juan Remón was a banana farmer becoming Mayor of Cienaga, Colombia from 1941 to 1942 and eventually a representative of Magdalena, Colombia. His mother Ana Lugo was a housewife. Known for its pristine beaches and Sierra Nevada mountains, Santa Marta is the oldest city in Colombia and where the legendary Venezuelan “Liberator of America,” Simón Bolivar, spent his final days. It is also a hot bed of African rhythmic traditions represented by Colombia’s national music and dance known as cumbia. Remón recalled, “I remember as a kid the processions at night (the cumbiambas) with drumming and people holding candles over their heads and singing on the beach. People really don’t know what real cumbia is. It eventually spread to other countries near us like Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, etc. and is played in different ways today by dance bands. But the real cumbia? It’s just drums, voices, gaitas (long single hole flutes) and maracas. If you hear it in its pure form it’s very, very powerful… no one can resist it.”
MAN OF THE MARACA
Although Mr. Remón worked as a vocalist, he was also a skilled percussionist called on by producers in the recording studio for his mastery on what is known as the “percusión menor” - minor hand held percussion. Instruments like the Cuban guiro, Dominican guira, Puerto Rican guicharo, Colombian guacharaca, Brazilian pandeiro, reco reco and more. But he would attain a reputation for the instrument he became most known for, the maracas. “…Venezuela and Colombia share some musical traditions because there is a valley that unites both countries. That’s why we share with them the music called joropo. The maracas are the driving force in that music. I’ve been doing it since I was kid. But it wasn’t until I started working with you (Sanabria) that a bandleader would actually feature me soloing on them.” As in all jazz performance practice it would arise from the spontaneity of the moment. I noticed the impromptu variations Hiram was doing on an instrumental jazz joropo piece we play in concert called “Do You Know?” I instructed the musicians to slowly fade out one by one so that all that would be left on stage would be Mr. Remón. After doing a solo on them wowing the crowd he would end it by slowing down and shaking just one maraca. Creating more and more drama, he would decrease its revolutions until only just one pebble was revolving within it. He then decreased the revolution of the maraca until the lone pebble would slowly come to a stop like a car running out of gas. It was an incredible display of virtuosity that was simply mesmerizing. The icing on the cake? He would speak some phrases in the indigenous language of Quechua.
EL PAVO
Hiram’s first public performance was with the legendary Colombian vocalist, guitarist and composer in the vallenato style, Guillermo Buitrago. As told in 2023 to Alex Tatis on his show Magazine Salsero Sale El Sol Hiram recalled, “The first time I ever came up on a stage was with Guillermo Buitrago. My legs were shaking. I remember I sang a tango. That was in 1945. I was always following him anywhere he appeared and in school I was always being scolded for singing in class. Till this day it still is my obsession. I can’t sleep if I don’t have music around me. Even though I’m retired I have to have music around me, all types. You have to understand back then in Bogota a singer had to be versatile and sing any type of music. Paso dobles, tangos, guarachas of the time period, it wasn’t called salsa, it was guaracha or the son. And of course Colombian music. If you made a list of the songs I know it would never end.” The year 1950 would prove to be life changing for “El Pavo.” While traveling on a bus from Cienaga to Santa Marta on his way to see his girlfriend a friend of his made him get off the bus because her grandmother was having a birthday party in the nearby neighborhood of Manzanares. The Hermanos Martelo Orchestra was performing but they had no vocalist. Thinking he was a seasoned professional, Hiram was asked to sit in and performed the whole evening. He was subsequently invited to a few rehearsals and on October 12, 1950 at the age of 17 he would become their official vocalist performing with them at the Club de Los Americanos in Santa Marta.
His daughter Malena recalls, “He got the nickname ‘El Pavo’ (The Turkey) because he’d be tired and take naps during their breaks. When he would wake up he’d be disheveled and sometimes just rush up to the stage without combing his hair. The musicians laughed and say he looked like a turkey.”
In the same year he was featured on live radio broadcasts with Americo Y Sus Caribes on Radio Caracol and its sister station Radio Reloj. He also became part of the house band beginning his journey learning the Latin American songbook as he was required to sing anything from Colombian porro, vallenato, joropo and the ubiquitous cumbia to music from other Latin American countries including Brazilian music in Portuguese. Selling some of the animals he had acquired through the family farm he decided to move to Bogota to get vocal training and study music theory at the Conservatorio de Musica de la Universidad Nacional. He was not accepted but through perseverance he eventually was allowed to attend an assistant.
BIG BAND CUMBIA
Inspired by the sound of American big bands, in 1946 Colombian multi-instrumentalist Lucho Bermúdez would form his own big band and be the first to adopt the cumbia to this format. It became the rage amongst young dancers in the post World War II Colombia of the 1950s. Hiram was in the the thick of things working with a variety of orchestras in the city of Bogota. An example of this is his work with the Orquesta Marcial Marchena led by tenor saxophonist, composer, arranger Julio Ojito De Polonuevo. Composed and arranged by him, this songs lyrics address the Asian Flu pandemic that occurred in Colombia in 1957.
Subsequent work with other well known big band leaders like clarinetist Climaco Sarmiento would follow as well as tours throughout out Latin America with various leaders, in particular Toño Criales Y Sus Soloistas with which he toured the English speaking Caribbean. It would further solidify the exptensive song repertoire he would become known for.
UNREST AND LA GRAN MANZANA LA ASIÁTICA ORQUESTA MARCIAL MARCHENA, HIRAM REMON
But while the populace was dancing to the big band sounds of Bermudez, Marchena and trumpeter Pacho Galán, beginning in 1948 rivalries between liberals and conservatives in Colombia would lead to an intense ten year period of political violence that would became known as “La Violencia.” It would continue into 1960s giving rise to the creation of guerrilla groups further continuing the cycle of violence between political parties, and the continued abuse of citizens through land inequality, drug dealer gang violence, police brutality and more.
In 1965 the Hart-Celler Act would change immigration policy in the United States which up till that time had a discriminatory quota system that favored certain nationalities from Northern and Western Europe. With this unfair practice removed now people from Asia, Africa, and Latin America were allowed Stateside, especially those with special skills. It would lead to many South Americans, in particular Colombians, coming to New York and settling in the borough of Queens in the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. By 1969 corruption in Bogato’a musicians union had begun a campaign of hiring only foreign orchestras who would perform at all the major carnival events while excluding Colombian groups except for Pacho Galan’s big band. Disgusted by what was witnessing, Hiram decided to come to New York City and vowed to work in anything as long as it wasn’t music. But he had not counted on the fact that a new vibrant club scene had started to take hold in the new Colombian immigrant communities of Queens. Their customs, food and most all music was energizing the city with the rock steady rhythm of the cumbia. Within a week the word had gotten around that he was now living in Elmhurst. As in his native Colombia, he once again was working as a featured vocalist at clubs like El Patio, Chib Cha, Añoranzas, Oscar’s Restaurant, El Aguatala and more as well as in catered dance halls, church dances and restaurants.
CUMBIA & JAZZ FUSION
By 1976 El Pavo’s career was thriving in New York City as a vocalist. Besides his numerous club appearances working with established bandleaders like Argentinian pianist Frank Valiente and Panamanian multi-saxophonist, flutist Mauricio Smith, he could be frequently found in the recording studio as a Spanish language jingle singer, background vocalist and percussionist. Here Hiram is featured on percussion on Mongo Santamaria's 1976 Ubane album on the track Cumbia Tipica with Justo Betancourt on vocals and Mongo on congas.
Here Hiram is featured on percussion on Mongo Santamaria's 1976 Ubane album on the track Cumbia Tipica with Justo Betancourt on vocals and Mongo on congas.
Then in 1977 came the call from “The Angry Man of Jazz”, the legendary bassist composer, arranger, band leader Charles Mingus. A complex individual who was the product of a diverse racial, cultural mix, Mingus had experienced cruel racism in his youth that would continue into adulthood. in reaction to this he would become as famous for his volatile temper as he was for his virtuosity as a musician. A trip to Mexico had exposed Mingus to the rhythms of Colombian cumbia which are also popular there. Director Elio Petri commissioned him to compose the soundtrack for the political drama Todo Modo in Italy. It would inspire Mingus to mix the rhythms of cumbia with jazz. He began to assemble a supergroup for the recording which included percussionists Candido Camero, Ray Mantilla, Alfredo “Opita” Ramirez and Hiram. “It was an honor to work with Mingus. I know everyone talks about his temper but we got along great…Dannie Richmond (the drummer) and I became good friends.” Hailed as a masterpiece, it was the first album to expose the jazz world to the rhythms of Colombia. You can hear Hiram making vocal declarations in the background while playing the maracas.
THE MULTIVERSE
In 1985 I finally had the privilege and honor of meeting Hiram through pianist Frank Valiente on a wedding gig at Terrace On The Park in Queens. Besides Frank, the band was made up of Freddie Rios on bass, Gene Jefferson on alto sax and flute, yours truly on drums and El Pavo on vocals. It represented the new New York City as Frank and Freddie are from Argentina, Gene was Panamanian, I Puerto Rican and Hiram Colombian. The first tune we played was Jobim’s “Mañana De Carnival.” I noticed one thing immediately, Hiram was singing in authentic Brazilian Portuguese. He was also playing the Brazilian tambourine, the pandeiro, in an old style that is no longer played anymore by holding it almost vertically. Then he sang a Dominican merengue while also playing the scarped metal guira authentically. Then a Cuban guajira while playing the guiro authentically. Then a bolero, then a cumbia, then a tango, then… the set was a panorama of the Latino songbook. Frank had chosen wisely as all of us were there because of our versatility and authentic knowledge of these various styles that each have their own idiosyncrasies in terms of performance. I had longed to find a versatile vocalist who was versed in all of these genres but also played percussion because of the multiverse concept/philosphy I had developed which incorporates the multitude of styles that are found within the Pan Latino experience. Finally he approached me after the set and told me in Spanish that he knew I was involved in jazz and asked me if I knew who Charles Mingus was. I responded to him in Spanish in disbelief, “Cumbia & Jazz Fusion. Don’t tell me you worked on that album.” It was a special evening because besides meeting Hiram I had gotten to meet and perform for the first time with Gene Jefferson. Gene had been in the house band at the Apollo in its heyday in the 1960s backing up everyone from Ray Charles, The Supremes, Lou Rawls to James Brown. Besides that he had worked and recorded with Tito Rodriguez and the true Father of mambo and son montuno, Arsenio Rodriguez and much more. That night I asked both of them to be in my small ensemble Ascensión. They would also become members of my Sexteto Ibiano and Multiverse Big Band appearing on many of our Grammy nominated releases. Now they are both gone. I have been supremely blessed to have known these gentlemen who were men’s men. They exuded and lived the concept of the “old school.” Professionalism, knowledge of craft and excellence, respect for others, embracing the new knowing that it is built on a past that must not only be remembered, be honored.
Hiram interprets the classic bolero written by Mexican composer Consuelo Velazquez. Peter Brainin is the soprano sax soloist, Dave Miller is the trombone soloist.
LA ESPERANZA
In the interview with Alex Titus, El Pavo concluded with these words…
“How it could it be that there is so much beautiful music that comes from Colombia that everyone robs from it and we ourselves don’t respect it… I was asking a young person if they knew who Pancho Galán was. He said he didn’t know. I ask myself, why? … Antonio María Peñaloza. Nelson Piñedo… (our) musical culture has been lost… we should teach our young people in our very own schools… but I have hope that things will be fixed. Not for me, but for the future of todays youth so they can learn and ultimately move forward.”
Maestro Remón is survived by his children Maria, Lourdes, Hugo, Ana, and Malena, 12 grandchildren and 15 great grand children.
- Special thanks to Malena Remón, her son Andrew and Alex Titus
Listen this Saturday June 21 from 4-6pm ET as Bobby pays tribute to El Pavo in a special segment on the LATIN JAZZ CRUISE on member supported WBGO FM. If you miss the show or wish to hear it again simply go to the archive by typing in your search window WBGO Latin Jazz Cruise.
