Founder of Los Papines passed away

The outstanding percussionist Jesús María Abreu Hernández, last living member and founder of the emblematic Cuban group Los Papines, died this Saturday in the Canary Islands, where he was working, informed the Cuban Institute of Music.

Jesús María Abreu Hernández

He was born in Havana on March 14, 1945, and from a very young age he had as a premise the defense of Cuban rumba, its elements and tradition, in which Los Papines was a leading group.

He began his artistic career in various groups with which he participated in different nightclubs in Havana, such as the Tropicana and Parisien night clubs.

Together with his brothers he formed the Conjunto Los Papines, a reference in the field of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean percussion inside and outside Cuba.

For many years he was linked to artistic education as a professor at the National School of Art and led the new generation of Los Papines, with a group of young people who defend the continuity of the family blood with the authenticity of a legacy of more than five decades.

Abreu Hernandez, was a great promoter and disseminator of Cuban roots and rhythms. At the time of his death, he was awarded the National Culture Distinction, the Alejo Carpentier Medal and the Raul Gomez Garcia Distinction.

Los Papines stand out as one of the emblematic groups in the country; thus, respected in the world of rumba and dance in and outside Cuba.

The presentation of Los Papines  became indispensable in almost all the shows of Cuban autochthonous music, in Cuba as well as out of it.

The Cuban Television called them once and a thousand times, in the other shows they were always called because they knew that meant seriousness, discipline and abnegation to the work whatever it was.

Since its creation, Los Papines is one of the best known rumba groups in Cuba and abroad for the quality and originality of their musical interpretations, in which they prove to be true masters of Cuban percussion.

With information from ACN – Translated by Radio Angulo